A popular Ibadan supermarket, Pinnacle Groceries and Cosmetics, shut down on April 3 by National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has been reopened, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) has reports.
NAN reports that the supermarket was seeing operating on Friday.
The South-West Zonal Director of NAFDAC, Mrs Roseline Ajayi, told NAN in Ibadan that the reopening of the supermarket was sequel to to the directive from Lagos office of the agency.
She said that the Lagos office based its directive on the fact that the issue which led to the supermarket’s closure had been resolved.
Ajayi said that the supermarket was shut when its management refused to respond to the invitation by the agency’s Lagos office for further investigations on some of its products being put up for sale.
“The closure had to do with a product that was registered by NAFDAC, but which its unregistered version were seen in some supermarkets in Oyo State in January when the investigation and enforcement directorate of NAFDAC visited from Lagos.
“Seeing the unregistered versions of this product indicated parallel importation, meaning that somebody else who has not yet registered with us is importing it.
“So we can’t determine the quality and source of the product.
“The essence of the registration is for us to guarantee the fitness of the product for consumption or usage.
“So when the investigation team found the unregistered ones in Pinnacle in January, they were immediately evacuated.
“After that, they invited Pinnacle’s management to Lagos with their documents for verification so that they would be able to trace the source of the product, but they didn’t honour the invitation.
“So after giving them more time and they still didn’t go, the Lagos team now directed us in Ibadan to shut down the place,” she said.
Ajayi further stated that after shutting down the supermarket, its management visited her office here but that they were directed to Lagos where the matter originated.
She, however, said that the issue had been resolved in Lagos, while the place had been reopened and the suspected products evacuated from the supermarket.
The zonal director enjoined Nigerians to always patronise only NAFDAC-registered products, whether imported or local. (NAN)
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