A fish depot belonging to Haano Industries Limited/Premier Fish Product Limited has been sealed off for putting the lives of Lagosians at risk through it dubious malpractice.
Operatives of Rapid Response Squad, (RRS) of Lagos State Police Command and officials of the State Ministry of Health today sealed off a fish depot belonging to Haano Industries Limited/Premier Fish Product Limited on Oba Akran Road for warehousing and selling expired fish to members of the public.
The depot was said to have housed over 700 Million of Naira worth of fish suspected to have been expired.
The company, which is located at 114, Oba Akran Road, Ikeja was under surveillance for close to two weeks by the Police. The lid was finally blown yesterday by the operatives of the Rapid Response Squad following a tip off from sources that the company was revalidating some expired products of fish expiry dates.
This informed the cordoning off of the cold room yesterday evening by the police to forestall the contamination of the site of evidence as well as for officials of the Ministry of Health to inspect the cold room today.
The officials, who were at the cold rooms, inspected four cold rooms of the company containing several millions of Naira in tons of fish before sealing up the company.
Lagos state ministry officials from Health Ministry were led by Mr Kuforiji Adebayo, an Environmental Health Officer, stated that the State Government was sealing off the cold room to pave way for thorough laboratory investigations of the fish found in the cold room.
He stated “this place is being sealed up for health analysis. The samples of the consignment being taken are for laboratory analysis. What we have met on ground physically is highly suggestive of the fact that there are questionable practices here as most of the fish has expired.
“What we have established here is a deceit and fraudulent activities . We have found that the company is revalidating the expiry of its products. As a responsive and responsible Government, Governor Ambode Akinwunmi would not fold his arms and allow unwholesome fish to be sold to its citizens."
He maintained “what we have seen indicates the condition of the fish before they were frozen were not okay, that is why there are blood stains in the cartoon of the fish.
"If the labels are being changed now, the impression it leaves is that the labels might have been changed before the investigations”, he noted.
According to the Fish Manager, Sabir Alli, the stickers found littering in the lobby of the cold rooms fell off because of the shifting of fish cartoons to create space for the accommodation of new consignment.
He pointed out that the company was not revalidating its product expiry dates. He added that the products that were to expire in March 2016 would be sold off before expiry date.
According to Police Public Relations Officer, Dolapo Badmus, “Operatives of the Rapid Response Squad got a tip off two weeks ago that Haano Industries Limited was changing the expiry dates of its products but decided to wait and monitor the activities of the company in order to catch them in the act.
“We got a call that they were revalidating the products yesterday and we decided to swing into action. This was confirmed by a lot of the stickers found in the lobby with March 2016 as expiry date.
Our source within the company indicated that the revalidation of the expiry date was done in the lobby of the cold room and corridor, and that is why the place was littered with expired and new stickers”, the PPRO noted.
She confirmed the seal off of the premises, adding that Police will liaise with the Ministry of Health and appropriate bodies in charge for further investigations.
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