Posted on: 09:20 Thu, 18 Feb 2016



Operatives of Rapid Response Squad (RRS) of
Lagos State Police Command and officials of the
State Ministry of Health on Tuesday sealed off a
fish depot for warehousing expired fish at Oba
Akran Road, Ikeja, Lagos.

The depot, belonging to an Indian company,
Premier Fish Product Limited, allegedly stored​
over N700​ million worth of expired fish.
The company had been under surveillance for
about two weeks, the police said in a statement
on Tuesday.

“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 the expiry dates of
the stock,” the police statement said.

The Lagos State health officials on Tuesday
inspected four cold rooms of the company
containing several tons of fish before sealing off
the company.

An environmental health officer, Kuforiji Adebayo,
who led officials from the Ministry of Health,
said the state government was sealing off the
cold room to pave way for thorough laboratory
test of the fish found in the cold room.
“This place is being sealed off for health
analysis,” Mr. Adebayo said.

“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 activity,” he said.

Mr. Adebayo also said they discovered the
company was revalidating the expiry date of its
products.

”What we have seen indicates the condition of
the fish was not okay before being frozen. 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
said.

The company management, however, insisted it
was not revalidating its products’ expiry dates,
adding that the products – which are to expire
in March 2016 – would be sold off before expiry
date.

According to the depot manager, Sabir Alli, the
stickers that littered the corridor to the cold
rooms fell off because of the shifting of fish
cartoons to create space for accommodation of
new consignment.

The spokesperson of Lagos State Police
Command, Dolapo Badmus, confirmed the
incident, saying a staff of the company alerted
the police of the development.

“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,” said Ms. Badmus.