The Upper East Regional Office of the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) has slapped a GH¢25,000.00 fine on a pregnant woman for advertising unregistered products on social media.
The perpetrator, Madam Perpetual Akurugu, took to TikTok to advertise unregistered aphrodisiacs and body enhancement products stocked in kitchen cabinets in her residence at Yorogo, a community in the Bolgatanga Municipality.
The FDA, apart from its routine surveillance in shops, market centres, among others, across the region to rid the market of unregistered and unwholesome products, monitors both traditional and social media platforms for advertisements of such products.
Mr Abel Ndego, the acting Upper East Regional Head of the Authority, disclosed to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that “I was flipping through social media at about 0200 hours, which is a routine activity I do, and then chanced on a video of this lady advertising products.
“It caught my attention because she was speaking Gurune, an indigenous language of the Upper East Region. So, I went to her page and realised she had been engaging in the act of advertising unregistered and unwholesome products.
“I downloaded her videos, posted on our regulatory platform, and instructed the officers on what to do,” he said.
Mr. Ndego said the officials followed a planned strategy to the victim’s house, where she stocked the products in her kitchen cabinets.
“We immediately retrieved them and got her arrested,” Mr Ndego said, adding that “even though she is pregnant, the law will still take its course to ensure she does not repeat such an act.”
He said further: “For some time now, we have noticed that the social media space is being used as a tool and platform for the propagation of falsehoods with respect to regulated products. Quite a number of unregistered products are being marketed via social media platforms, particularly Facebook and TikTok.
“And so as part of our mandate, we are supposed to monitor these platforms to ensure that whatever information with regard to regulatory products, churned out, is in complete conformance with the law,” the Acting Head said.
Mr Ndego referred to the Public Health Act 851 of 2012 and reminded members of the public of the FDA’s mandate to ensure public health and safety, saying, “We are enjoined to ensure all products conform to laid-down regulatory standards.”
He said management of the FDA in the region would not relent on its quest to ensure that the Upper East remained the most regulatory-compliant region in the country. “We are leaving no stone unturned,” he emphasised.
In a related development, the FDA officials, led by Mr. Jiah Jiato Juah, the Regulatory Officer 1 (RO1), raided shops in the Bolgatanga Municipality for unregistered products.
The team on inspection visited the “Malbas Body Essentials and Cosmetics,” a newly established shop at Soe, a suburb of the Bolgatanga Municipality, and realised that the products in the shop, including aphrodisiacs and body enhancement products, were unregistered.
Despite several pleas of ignorance of the law by the shop owner, the RO1 and his team ignored her pleas and confiscated all displayed unregistered products on the shelves.
Mr Juah, while in the process of conveying the products, told the GNA that “Clearly, these products are not registered. We are taking them to our office. She should follow up to ensure the right thing is done.
“We will take her through the registration process and submit the products to the laboratory for analysis to be sure that they can be used by members of the public.
“This is not the end; we will continue to carry out routine unexpected inspection exercises to ensure we get these unregistered products off our markets,” he said and further cautioned those engaged in such businesses to stop.
