Governor Alex Otti has declared multi pronged attack against fake and counterfeit products in the commercial city of Aba, saying Abia State government officials would start where the National Agency for Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, stopped in the war.
NAFDAC has severally raided the Eziukwu market, popularly known as Cemetery Market over fake products. The Market was recently shut down indefinitely after authorities raided 240 shops and confiscated fake goods worth over ₦5 billion.
Reacting to the damaging report of NAFDAC incessant raids in Aba, the governor described the proliferation of fake and counterfeit goods in Abia State as an embarrassment, and vowed to rid the State of such merchants of death.
“I have directed my people to continue from where NAFDAC stops; raid the market to ensure sanity.”
Governor Otti counseled the fake products merchants to “make your own products, call it your own name instead of faking. They are giving us a bad name. We are going to come down very hard on them.
“I do not have a problem with you making your own product, but I have a problem with you faking the product of somebody else and trying to pass it as the original version”.
He vowed to intensify and sustain raids to restore the State’s business reputation, but promised to support genuine entrepreneurs who comply with regulatory standards.
The Governor urged aspiring manufacturers to obtain NAFDAC registration and follow due process, citing China and Japan as examples of nations that built global reputations by developing and marketing their own brands.
“Before now, people were rejecting Chinese and Japanese products as inferior, but today there are the most sought after brands because they sustained the products as original brand.
“Our people are industrious and making a lot of things in Aba, so, we encourage them to make their products and call it their names instead of faking other people’s products or we will raid and stop them in their tracks.”