DRAMATIC DETAILS OF HOW NAFDAC BUSTED AMIN MOUSSALLI HOME AND BUSINESS PLACES OF N1 BILLION WORTH EXPIRED AND UNREGISTERED FOOD PRODUCTS

Details of how National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control NAFDAC led by Mr. Paul Ohii raided the premises of Amin Moussalli Karimu Kotun home and his business place Chocolat Royale Etim Inyang street Victoria Island Lagos of N1 billion worth expired and unregistered food products.

Details has it that some of the products were said to have expired as far back as 2004 and some in 2013. NAFDAC on Tuesday night reportedly sealed completely the business outlet of confectionary company, Chocolat Royal on the shocking discovery of stored imported, fake, unregistered and expired/unwholesome food products to produce consumables for customers. There was also six illegal 40ft cold rooms fully stocked with contaminated food products built on top of sewages (soak away pits) and in front of toilets at Chocolat Royale and at Amin's home. 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.

According to NAFDAC officials the Lebanese business mogul who have since gone into hiding travels abroad and request for expired food products from manufacturers, he 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. These products are then cleared at the wharf and offloaded inside the two cold rooms at his Karimu Kotun residence, Victoria Island, from where they are then transferred to Chocolat Royal headquarters and then used to prepare ice creams, chocolates, beverages and pastries for public consumption. NAFDAC officials took away imported fake, unregistered and expired food products worth over N1 billion after their nine hours operations at the two places.

But this operation was not without resistance, 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. At that time 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. The management of the eatery even 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. Several calls across to some top shots in the society couldn't even help matters as  Tatiana Moussali Nouri, daughter of Amin Moussalli ordered her men to coorperate. These allowed an unrestricted access to more shocking discoveries. The same scenario played out at Amin Moussalli home where 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.

NAFDAC officials reinforced with more men, leader of the operation 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.