Former Food and Agric minister, Nii Amansah Namoale, has hit out at the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) over its seeming laxity to prosecute fake drug and food dealers in the country.
He wondered why the FDA has not been active in prosecuting persons who import and sell fake drugs and food, something he said is not helping the fight against fake drugs and food on the Ghanaian market.
“Look at the way Nigeria is fighting fake drugs in their country. They report it and prosecute people, but over here we only report without prosecution,” he told Bright Kwesi Asempa Tuesday on Onua FM’s morning show Yen Nsem Pa.
For him, prosecution of the perpetrators is the only way to winning the fight and restoring public’s confidence in the FDA, saying “until we begin prosecuting perpetrators, the public would continue to lose confidence in the FDA.
“The FDA is here and we are being inundated with fake drugs and contaminated food in our market. These drugs are even in our hospitals,” he claimed.
But the head of communication at the FDA, James Lartey, refuted claims that the Authority does not prosecute offenders.
He said there are instances that the FDA has prosecuted individuals and shop owners for flouting the FDA regulations, hence wondered why some people would claim otherwise.
Meanwhile, Mr Namoale says he’s surprised the FDA claims there are no plastic or rubber rice on the Ghanaian market.
The FDA last Friday refuted claims there is plastic rice on the Ghanaian market, basing its claim on market surveys it said was conducted on samples of the alleged plastic rice. It said the results showed negative and that the rice had higher starch content.
“I was surprised to hear them (FDA) defending the plastic rice, because we have seen the thing and you also say it is not true. What we have seen is not like the normal rice we are used to and so how can we believe you when you come out to issue statements?” he stated.
Mr Namoale said he has stopped eating imported rice after witnessing ‘fake’ rice in his home.
He is thus urging Ghanaians to consider locally produced rice and the farmers to also improve on the quality of their yields.
He said the cost of treating a kidney and liver illness which may arise from eating rubber rice, far exceed the cost of a local rice, hence the public should not complain too much about the cost of the local rice
