Following the raid of rice depot, City Rice in Uyo Akwa Ibom recently by the officers of Consumer Protection Council CPC due to substandard and harmful re-bagging of the product, the legal adviser to the firm Victor Iyanam had vowed to institute a legal action against the council.
Mr. Victor Iyanam has also demanded unreserved apology and return of 1500 bags of rice that the Consumer Protection Council seized from their retail outlet and warehouse.
Iyanam who explained this Wednesday the action of the CPC was not in congruence with fair trade, adding that their action had caused the organisation untold harms in its business dealing.
According to him, “the organisation is instituting a legal proceeding against the council for damages over the seizure of the goods worth N24,750,000.
“On Sunday, some men who claimed to come from CPC, Abuja, ransacked and destroyed rice stacked in bags and resting on strong wooden platforms as required by experience and best practices in the rice trade.
“At the end of the rampage, the men claiming to be from the CPC carted away 1500 bags of rice, mainly of the local variants. They came in three trucks, none was registered and can therefore not be identified. The place to which the bags of rice were carted remains unknow
“We are dismayed that the conduct of the men of the CPC negates the courteous and humane manner the CPC was always expected to act. By the provision of Rules 10 and 11 of the Consumer Protection (Products and Services Monitoring and Registration) Regulations 2005, the CPC would be expected to issue some notice before moving against any marketer.
“Besides carting away 1500 bags of rice with a market value of N24, 750,000 is excessive and unreasonable in the circumstance. This is therefore to call on the Nigeria Police, Akwa Ibom State Command to come to the aid of Rice City and to ensure the return of her products,”
Recall that last Weekend, officials of CPC including its Director General, Mr. Babatunde Irukera, seized over 1,000 bags of re-bagged rice and arrested eight suspects in some of the areas the council visited.
Rice City was one of such outlets that CPC confiscated some expired re-bagged rice from.
Irukera, who had conducted journalists around some shops at Udoma Street by Etuk Street and Rice City along IBB Way, said “the products that had been rebranded, re-bagged and sold to members of the public as fresh and genuine rice, were unfit for human consumption.”
