But for the quick intervention of the eagle eyed
men of the National Agency for Foods and Drugs Administration Control-NAFDAC,
the Amin Mousalli-led management of the much publicized Chocolat Royal would
have poisoned hundreds of Nigerians who throng the Etim Iyang, Victoria lsland,
Lagos location of the company on daily basis consuming their dairy products,
this much National Enquirer can report.
The National Agency for Food and Drugs
Administration and Control-NAFDAC last Tuesday night sealed, completely, the
business outlet of the Lebanese billionaire businessman who owns the popular
confectionary company, Chocolat Royal for importation, storage and use of fake,
unregistered and expired/unwholesome food products to produce consumables for
customers, we can authoritatively report that Chocolat Royal was sealed by
NAFDAC on the discovery of six illegal 40ft cold rooms fully stocked with
contaminated food products built on top of sewages (soak away pits) and in
front of toilets.
Not only that majority of these food products
discovered have expired since 2004, which is 11 years ago, with the most recent
expiring in 2013, the most worrisome aspect of it all was the discovery to the
consternation of NAFDAC officials that the management of Chocolat Royal had
revalidated the expiring dates of almost all the food products, with 90 per
cent of them were not even written in English language and therefore not
registered.
While two of the illegal cold rooms built in
front of toilets were discovered at the Chocolat Royal headquarters at 267A,
Etim Iyang Crescent, another two were discovered and also sealed at 1, Karimu
Kotun Street, the residence of the company’s Chairman, Amin Moussalli, both
located in Victoria Island, Lagos.
Investigations revealed that Moussalli, the
Chairman of AIM Consultants, with chains of media houses including Cool FM,
Nigeria Info, Wazobia FM stations, as well as WEE television stations, who is
now at large, travels abroad to source for companies whose food products have
few months to expire.
NAFDAC officials said the Lebanese business mogul
receives these products mostly for free or at a reduced price and also gets paid
by the companies to evacuate the products, which ordinarily would have cost
them colossal amount of money to dispose.
He then ships them in large quantities to Nigeria, which as alleged by NAFDAC
has become his dumping ground for food toxic for close to two decades.
These products are then cleared at the wharf and off-loaded inside the two cold
rooms at his Karimu Kotun residence, Victoria Island, Lagos from where they are
then transferred to Chocolat Royal headquarters and then used to prepare ice
creams, chocolates, beverages and pastries for members of the public.
At the end of the double operations, which lasted
for nine hours, imported fake, unregistered and expired food products worth
over N1 billion stocked in these illegal cold rooms were evacuated in six Hilux
vans and buses, which NAFDAC stormed the place with.
This remarkable feat by NAFDAC was as a result of a tip off from a journalist
who for three years has investigated the activities of Chocolat Royal, a
company reputable for playing host to top Nigerian and foreign echelons,
including governors, legislators, managing directors, artistes and others for
close to two decades.
When the officials of NAFDAC stormed Chocolat
Royal at exactly 12:15pm on Tuesday with some team of mobile police officers, they
were resisted vehemently from carrying out their duties by some senior staff of
the confectionary company, allegedly led by the Director of Finance, Idowu
Adebayo, and others who apparently were in the know of the plot by the
company’s management.
Understanding the gravity of what was about to
happen if eventually discovered, they denied NAFDAC officials access to the
cold rooms and stores to forestall more discoveries after some large quantities
of the expired food products were discovered in their freezers, kitchens and
bars upstairs, requesting for search warrant from the officials, a ploy later
discovered to be a strategy to enable them evacuate the cold rooms and stores.
The atmosphere was charged to the extent that the
company’s bouncers were almost engaging the NAFDAC officials in a brawl,
forcing the mobile police officers to apply force and made some arrests, which
eventually made most of them to retreat.
But access to the cold rooms and stores was not granted.
However, a little drama ensued when the obstinate
management of the eatery invited other mobile police officers, who were
probably their accomplice, to the scene to scare NAFDAC officials who they felt
were acting illegally out of their premises, but the Superintendent of Police
who led the NAFDAC police team ordered them out.
On realizing that the operation was not illegal
after they had put several calls across to some top shots in the society, the
daughter of the Chairman, who also is the Deputy Group MD of AIM group, Tatiana
Moussali Nouri, was left with no choice than to cooperate.
Nouri asked the staff to also cooperate, while she led the officials round the
premises, opening stores and cold rooms, which they were able to evacuate as
the melee was on, but the NAFDAC officials could not be deceived based on the
information already in their possession.
In order to re-strategize, the NAFDAC officials
took inventories of the expired products discovered inside the freezers,
kitchen and some bars upstairs and urged the management to sign the papers,
while every cold room in sight was sealed to prevent the management access for
more evacuation.
Pretending to have concluded inspection, they
asked the Chocolat Royal management to report to the NAFDAC office the next day
and then stormed Moussalli’s Karimu Kotun residence where the first two 40ft
secret illegal cold rooms filled with fake, unregistered and expired food
products built on top of sewage were discovered.
On getting to the apartment, however, the foreign
national security guards and other domestic staff unleashed dogs on the NAFDAC
officials and refused to open the main gate leading to the building against all
entreaties.
This however forced NAFDAC officials to put a call across to the Director of
Investigation and Enforcement of the Agency, Kingsley Ejiofor, who immediately
stormed the scene.
The arrival of Ejiofor spurred everyone to action as he immediately ordered the
officials to break the gate and shoot the dogs if the security guards
eventually refused to chain them.
When finally the gate was forced opened and the guards subdued, the cooks
voluntarily opened the two cold rooms where the entire products in stock were
discovered to have expired, many as far back as 2004, with maggots’ found in
some.
At the end of the evacuation, two buses and two
Hilux pick-up vans filled with the fake and expired products worth over N500
million, all imported, were evacuated from the Karimu Ikotun residence of
Moussali alone.
On interrogation, the jittery cooks, who identified themselves as John Gbokasa
and David from Benin Republic, confirmed to NAFDAC officials that the house
belongs to Moussali and that the fake, unregistered and expired food products
found inside the two cold rooms were for Chocolat Royal.
“I know that the products have expired. Some,
2004, 2006, 2009, but I am a cook and I take instruction from my boss,” David
said.
“Anytime they need some products to prepare edibles at Chocolat Royal, they
come here with van and mine is to give them key to take whatever they want and
after they finish taking the items, they will return the key to me,” John
added.
They however begged the NAFDAC officials not to arrest them but wait until
their boss, Moussalli, who has allegedly absconded and still at large, or the
wife who they said was out of the country to return.
The NAFDAC officials, however, turned down their
plea and arrested the two who during interrogation at the Apapa office of the
Agency gave vital information to NAFDAC.
From there, the NAFDAC Director and the entire team stormed the Etim Iyang
Crescent headquarters of Chocolat Royal at about 6:15pm for the second time
with the aim to not only break the cold rooms but also arrest Tatiana and the
staff who had earlier wilfully obstructed NAFDAC officials from performing
their duty.
However, only Adebayo and one David had not taken to their heels as others,
including Moussalli’s daughter had left.
NAFDAC officials, however, were able to inspect only two cold rooms as it was
getting late already.
Except some few products purchased in local markets in Nigeria, all the
imported products inside the cold rooms have expired.
The expired products, which filled two Hilux pick-up vans worth about N500
million, were also evacuated and the entire building sealed.
Reacting to the incident after the operation,
Ejiofor said NAFDAC had in its custody six persons in connection with the
incident, adding that they were arrested for intentionally obstructing NAFDAC
officials while on official duty.
“The suspects will be interrogated, while the
food products will be sampled and taken to the laboratory for analysis, where
the labels and contents will be properly analysed and at the end of the day
when the reports are out, that will determine the next line of action,” Ejiofor
said.
The NAFDAC director, who commended the officers and the entire team for the
successful operation despite the intimidation from the staff of the offending
company, further said the food and confectionary outlet will continue to remain
close to allow for proper investigation.
“They will be investigated by the Federal
Taskforce on Fake and Counterfeit Drugs and Unwholesome Processed Foods, and at
the end of investigation, files submitted will be reviewed and after
evaluation, we would send them to our legal department and we will be advised on
what to do by the legal and if we have enough facts, then we will now proceed
for prosecution,” he added.
But in a twisted press statement meant to
obfuscate the truth as well as deceive the members of the public, the
management of Chocolat Royal on Wednesday presented the invasion of its
premises by NAFDAC as a normal routine check, trivialising the development as
nothing serious. Not only did they deny ever using the expired products
discovered to prepare consumables for their customers, but stated that the
expired food products were discovered in their “cupboard”.
The statement also said the expired products
found in Moussalli’s house were discovered in the house of one of the directors
of the company.
“The items found were never used in preparing food or confectionaries. As
corporate citizens, we will work with NAFDAC to ensure that these issues are
promptly resolved and any breaches if any are remedied,” the statement reads in
part.
Meanwhile the Director General of NAFDAC, Paul Orhii, who arrived Lagos from
Abuja earlier on Wednesday after inspecting the fake and expired food products
evacuated from Chocolat Royal on Thursday morning at NAFDAC enforcement office
Apapa, said the matter will be thoroughly investigated and the people involved
prosecuted if found culpable.
Orhii said: “As you can see, these products are not even registered. Not only
are they not registered, they have expired, some in 2004 and they are not even
written in English language, so they could not have been registered.
“Not only that, you also noticed that the case is
not only that the products have expired, some about 11 years ago, but they
attempted to revalidate them, which is also a serious offence.
“They were caught in the process of using these expired products. So after
investigation we will begin the prosecution. Anybody can build a cold room
anywhere provided the place is not prohibited, but in this case, I understand
that there was a cold room on top of sewage; soak away pit. Of course you
cannot use that kind of cold room to store stocks that you are going to use for
the production of food for the members of the public, so that is an offence.”
Orhii said that Chocolat Royal sealed outlet will remain closed until
investigation is concluded, adding that compliance with NAFDAC regulation must
be ensured first before the issue of reopening of the outlet will be discussed,
but not anytime soon.
Investigation carried out has shown that minimum of 5,000 Nigerians and foreign
nationals patronise the three Chocolat Royal outlets at 267A Etim Iyang
Crescent, Shoprite and Lekki.
A medical practitioner, Dr. Bassey Richard, who spoke to our correspondent on
the telephone, when asked to give insight on the health implication of
consuming expired food products, said consumption of fake and expired food
products can cause food poisoning and very dangerous especially to pregnant
women and infants.
Richard said: “Eating expired food products will likely lead to food poisoning.
Food poisoning consists of diarrhea and vomiting that can last for weeks, lead
to fever and in some extreme cases to death.
“When it has to do with foods prepared with
fruits such as nuts, apples and grapes, growth known as mycotoxins can occur,
which can cause itchiness, diarrhea, vomiting and dizziness. It is not
advisable to eat expired food products,” he said.
