NAFDAC bursts fake alcoholic producing plant in Port Harcourt

…seizes 50 Loads of Counterfeit drugs, recovers rifles in Onitsha

Counterfeiters of alcoholic drinks and beverages originally located in Aba, Abia State are now said to have opened centres in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State Capital.

Informed sources that spoke with BusinessDay, said the counterfeiters had trained some other persons, who had opened a branch in the Mile 3 Zone of Diobu in Port Harcourt.

It was gathered that Aba thus supplies most of the materials while the alleged fakers would procure the rest in Port Harcourt. The result is that they produce all kinds of foreign and local alcoholic drinks and print the labels and cork the bottles.

It was gathered that the operators procure old bottles of the drinks from scavengers, wash them, and then refill them up with their own products brewed from ethanol and other chemicals, and the drink is ready.

But, officials of the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) got wind of the illicit operations and began to monitor them.

Consequently, NAFDAC launched an operation and arrested a 52-year-old man, named Anthony Chidi, who was alleged to specialise in producing fake alcoholic beverages inside Mile 3 Market, Diobu, Port Harcourt.

A statement by Cyril Monye of the Public Relations Unit for the South-South Region, said Chidi was caught inside a dirty shop washing used bottles of various brands of alcoholic beverages which he allegedly used in producing unwholesome drinks and selling to unsuspecting members of the public.

Items found in the shop, according to Monye, included dirty empty bottles of different brands of local and foreign alcoholic beverages, gallons and jars of ethanol, washed empty bottles, corks, packaging materials, various brands of already packaged drinks, funnel fitted with filter, and other things.

Read also: NAFDAC destroys N4.7bn wrong drugs in Rivers State

Similarly, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), on Wednesday, said it security team had recovered two riffles, live cartilages, matchet and other weapons hidden by unknown persons at drug market, Bridge Head, Onitsha, Anambra State amid ongoing clampdown on fake and counterfeit drugs.

The Agency, it will be recalled, has been at drug sections of Onitsha bridge head market since February 10, 2025 as part of ongoing nationwide campaign to strengthening public health by ensuring that fake and counterfeit drugs that are being peddled by cartels and counterfeiters are pushed out of markets.

Mojisola Adeyeye, the Director General of NAFDAC, who disclosed this while addressing journalists at the market, expressed surprise over the discovery which she viewed as an assassination attempt on the Agency’s director in South-East zone, Martins Iluyomade, who normally conducts briefings at that particular spot on a daily basis.

Adeyeye, who was represented by Iluyomade, added that their security team equally foiled two attempts made by some hoodlums to gain entrance to the stores where they parked seized drugs at Onitsha as well as arrested two suspects in connection with the assassination attempt.

She, however, assured the public that the exercise would not be brought to an end abruptly because according to her, it was not targeted at any person or groups but a national assignment for the general good of the populace.

“With prompt interventions of our security, we saw and recovered dagger, machetes, two guns and riffles. All other nights, we have arrested people who try to break in and do one things or another in this market. They are in the custody and volunteering useful information,” she added.

She, however, commended the leadership of the markets for working with them throughout the period of the operations, even as she assured that some sections of the market would be reopened this week while they begin the next aspect of the exercise.

According to her, not less than 50 trailers load of counterfeit and substandard drugs discovered in the market have been shifted to safer place for further action.