NADMO, National Security Seize Expired Soft Drinks Exposed To Schoolchildren
The National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), Operation Calm Life and the National Security have seized some expired soft drinks and water at Kwabenya in the Dome Kwabenya Constituency.
The products expired in July 2022 and were allegedly exposed to schoolchildren in the area.
They included Coke, Fanta, water, and other products branded Squeeze and Puma.
The team confiscated them from a shop located at Kwabenya on the Kwabenya-ACP stretch on Friday, February 24, 2023.
Seth Kofi Osei Kissi, the Ga East Municipal NADMO Director, said they quickly took action following a tip-off from a concerned citizen.
“We had information last night, around 10 pm, that somebody was selling expired products at a shop. When we got there, we found that those who took the products there had sped off, leaving one person, and that person was mentally disabled.
“So we spoke with him, and he assisted us to where the goods were picked from. So we saw a lot of stuff there, over 250 cartons. We parked all of them in the NADMO car. Upon interrogation, we got to know that there’s a shop with a container by the roadside,” he narrated.
Mr Kissi added that the owner of the shop relocated, leaving behind the expired products and giving easy access to passersby.
“Imagine school children chancing on them and people having to pass and carry them into their cars and people going to the market to sell,” he complained.
However, he said before they got to the scene, a lot of the products had already been carted away by some residents.
He disclosed that the residents they interviewed, including students, refused to open up, making it difficult to trace the people who had already consumed the drinks.
Mr Kissi, however, noted that the Municipal Health Directorate and hospitals in the area had been informed of the development to be better prepared in case patients report to their facilities with complaints.
Meanwhile, NADMO has destroyed the remaining products in their custody.