A manufacturing company, Bullion Go-Neat Global Limited, has asked the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) to expose those responsible for counterfeiting its product known as “Coco Samba Milk” and “Chocolate Flavored With Herbal Extract”.
In a statement made available to LEADERSHIP, the company noted that NAFDAC also needs to show transparency and credibility by doing everything necessary to back up its report on falsified Coco Samba products.
It said that clarifications became necessary after NAFDAC released a statement alerting the public on falsified Coco Samba that was allegedly intercepted in Germany.
According to NAFDAC, the investigation revealed that the product with “A4-9149” is falsified and different from that obtained from the NAFDAC database “A8-4418L” for the genuine product.
Meanwhile, Bullion Go-Neat Global Limited and its CEO, Ambassador Olufemi Ajadi, on Sunday, noted that the company has stopped producing the product with registration “A8-4418L.”
Ajadi said, “It is imperative to clarify that prior to the registration of Coco Samba Milk and Chocolate Flavored with Herbal Extract, our company produced Coco Samba Bitters Alcoholic drinks with NAFDAC No A8-4418L. However, due to low market demand, the production of Coco Samba Bitters Alcoholic Drink was discontinued, and it has not been in production since the expiry date of the licence.”
Ajadi, however, confirmed that the genuine registration number for Coco Samba Milk and Chocolate Flavored with Herbal Extract is A8-9149 and not A8-4418L as reported by NAFDAC.
The CEO urged NAFDAC to do its job well by informing the public properly. He noted that it was unacceptable that the agency who registered and certified Coco Samba Milk and Chocolate Flavored with Herbal Extract could not provide proper information to the public.
Ajadi also added that he was surprised and shocked when he read that Coco Samba was intercepted in Germany for not being good for consumption.
He noted that till date NAFDAC is yet to reach out to Bullion Go-Neat or submit any laboratory report to back up the circulated report.
He said, “Nobody served us any letter or notice concerning the alleged interception of our product in Germany. We approached several departments in NAFDAC and we were told there were no such complaints about our product anywhere. So, how did the report get to their website, some media houses also began to report it without reaching out to us. We believe good journalism requires hearing from all sides before publication, but we were not consulted and our opinion wasn’t sought.
“As a company paying taxes to the government and providing employment to Nigerians, we deserve a say in whatever is going on, or that will affect our company.
“We expect that by now, NAFDAC should bring evidence or samples of the said product that they reported was not safe for human consumption. No complaints from our consumers in Nigeria about our product and no sample from NAFDAC as well. So, I am calling on NAFDAC to produce evidence from Germany where they claimed it happened. I am still in shock over all this. At one point, I began to feel maybe some criminals within NAFDAC are being paid to tarnish our image. NAFDAC really need to sanitise itself by conducting thorough internal investigation.”
