CPC Apprehends eight in Akwa Ibom for re-bagging expired rice

Over eight persons were apprehended by the Consumers Protection Council (CPC) and over 1000 bags of substandard and repackaged rice worth millions of Naira were confiscated from them in Akwa Ibom State.

CPC Director General, Babatunde Irukera, disclosed this while addressing journalists after a sting operation yesterday. According to him, the operation was based on intelligence gathering by the council’s surveillance unit with the aim of ensuring consumer safety, stressing that the criminals would be prosecuted to serve as deterrent to others. Assuring consumers that the exercise would become routine and help them get rid of substandard products from the market and protect the health of consumers, he urged consumers to be careful where they make their purchases, adding that, when they were in doubt, they should speak out.

Confirming his participation in the nefarious activity, one of the operatives of such shops in Udoma Street, Etuk Market, Kanayo Jackson, said that they have been in the business since 2013, revealing that most rice traders in Akpan Andem and Itam Market in Uyo have been in the business for long.

“It is not only in Udoma Street that people are re-bagging rice there are many other places like Akpan-Andem and Itam market. I am only working for my brother, Jackson. We buy the empty bags and re-bag for sale.”

He alleged that security operatives have been coming to the shop before, but their boss usually bribed the operatives.

At Rice City shop and warehouse, printed bags of banned imported rice like Mama Africa, Stallion and host of others were seen, but nobody was able to explain how the bags got to their shop. At a warehouse along Esuene Street in the city, expired bags of rice were seen littering the uncompleted warehouse when CPC officials raided the building.