By GINIKA OKOYE

The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), has raided and sealed some shops at Utako market for selling re-bagged and under-weight bags of rice.

Sealing the shops in Abuja on Tuesday, Mrs Boladale Adeyinka, the Director, Surveillance and Investigations Department of FCCPC, said the raid followed an intelligence gathered by the Commission.

She said the intelligence showed that traders in the market were re-bagging local rice in foreign rice bags and selling them at exorbitant prices as imported rice.

Adeyinka described the move as exploitative, and against consumer economic interests.

She said the products would be confiscated and the Commission would follow the trail to fish out the producers and branders of the rice.

“We are carrying out this operation to confirm and validate the intelligence that local rice, our own rice is being packaged in foreign brands and sold as foreign rice.

“And because the appetite of Nigerians are for foreign brands which are no longer in the market, the market cartels are now going about re-bagging the local rice and selling them as foreign rice.

“That is exploitative and against consumer economic interests.

“As a matter of fact, for Mama Gold, as far as 2015, they stopped all their export.

“This is 2025 and yet, like you heard from the testimony of the trader, he is aware that they don’t sell those sizes anymore.

“So that is why we are here,” she said.

Adeyinka said the traders found culpable would face administrative penalties and fines under the FCCP Act.

“They will follow due process based on the infractions,” she said.

Adeyinka warned consumers of foreign rice to buy from importers or distributors to ensure the quality of the product.

Some of the traders who their shops were sealed feigned ignorance of the re-bagging of the products.

Mr Emmanuel Nneji, one of the traders, said he was not aware that Stallion company had stopped production of the rice in a long while.

According to Nneji, he buys from his suppliers in Kaduna and Kano States.

“If there had been a publication that says that this particular product is no more in the market, I would not have bought it, because I do not want to buy goods and at the end of everything, I will lose it.

“So what am begging is that even if they say I should make sure that I return it back, that tomorrow they are coming, and they don’t want to find it, I will do it,” he said.

Another trader who refused to mention his name, said he usually bought Stallion rebagged rice due to its increasing demand in the market.

“I buy the rice because people ask of it a lot but I still sell the 10kg for N18,000 and not the normal N25,000 to N28,000 which the foreign brand is sold,” he said.

Mr Alex Igwemma, the Secretary, Utako Market Traders Association, frowned at the unannounced visit of the Commission to the market without prior notice to the market officials

Igwemma who said that those in the business ought to have known that the products had not been in existence, appealed to traders in the market to ensure they purchase quality products for sale in the market.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that no fewer than five wholesale shops filled with bags of rice were sealed by the Commission and the owners invited to FCCPC for further investigations. (NAN)