August 24, (THEWILL) — The Bayelsa State Commissioner for Information, Orientation and Strategy, Ebiuwou Koku-Obiyai, has revealed that most of the chronic health conditions being experienced recently are a result of the consumption and use of substandard products that have flooded the markets in recent times.
Speaking at the weekend to newsmen in Yenagoa, Koku-Obiyai disclosed that even in Yenagoa, there is an influx of fake drugs, drinks, cosmetics and other harmful products in local markets.
To that effect, she said that the Bayelsa State Government has taken a positive step to get some persons arrested and their goods confiscated and discarded. adding that the measure requires urgent steps and measures from all relevant Stakeholders to curb the menace.
Government agencies of the state, she said, were working in partnership to tackle the menace, adding that the Ministry of Environment, Health, Environmental Sanitation Authority, and the Consumer Protection Unit of the Ministry of Trade and Investment have already swung into action.
She urged residents to be extra vigilant while shopping, stressing the need to check expiry dates, NAFDAC registration numbers, product colours, and textures before purchase. “If it is too cheap compared to the normal price, that should raise a red flag. The same applies to the water we drink. Some of us cannot manage water from our homes, it’s bottled water, pure water you don’t know how it’s processed”, she added.
The Commissioner stated that the government was committed to reducing the spread of fake products, assuring that law enforcement agencies will continue to clamp down on offenders.
She also encouraged members of the public to report suspicious items, promising that their identities would be kept confidential.
The commissioner, who is a professional Nurse, said: “I have my worries because I am a Nurse. If you visit the Federal Medical Centre or any of these health facilities, you will see the number of kidney and liver diseases. You begin to wonder how to manage.
“Most of the time, you see children coming down with some diseases. In fact, it doesn’t have an age limit again. Some of these harmful chemicals that are injected or added to both drugs, soft drinks, and wine, as far as it is fake, have a way of having direct effect on the liver, kidney, and even the lungs.
“The creams we use, when you rub them directly on your skin, the skin absorbs it, and that one enters the blood straight. We need to alert our people. We need to enlighten them on the need to be sure of what they are buying.
“Environmental Sanitation Authority is already in court with some of the people that are selling these fake drugs, fake drinks and other fake items and those fake goods were confiscated.
“The Ministry of Environment went out for their normal checks, when they got to Swali market, they saw soft drinks, body creams, hair relaxers that are all fake and expired.
“For us as a government, we want Bayelsans to live healthily. Anything we can prevent, we start to prevent it, and we believe that by joining hands with all of the agencies that are in charge of these, we will be able to stop the influx of those kinds of things. The ones we have seen, we have confiscated them, and they have even been arrested.
“There are deaths that are quite preventable, and I believe that is one of those situations. We have addressed the press on that, alerting Bayelsans that in case you see anything like that, approach the Ministry of Trade. They have the duty for consumer protection, and we have assured Bayelsans that there will be confidentiality.
“We need to be careful, we need to educate our children, we need to enlighten Bayelsans, we need to inform them that that is a red alert area, especially when it is too cheap from the normal price.”
Amos Okioma is a Correspondent at THEWILL
