The Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) and the Achimota Divisional Police Command have apprehended two Chinese nationals at Kisseman, a suburb of Accra, for allegedly dealing in expired Personal Protection Equipment (PPEs).
The two, a man and his wife, have been dealing in PPEs such as nose masks, thermometers and alcohol-based hand sanitizers in commercial quantities without approval from the FDA.
The arrest was upon a tip off, based on Onua FM’s investigations, to the FDA about the operations of the two Chinese nationals at Kisseman.
The Head of Drug Market Surveillance Department at the FDA, Edward Prah Ashong, who confirmed the arrest to Onua FM’s Yen Sempa on Thursday, said, “it’s true we have arrested some Chinese and investigations are ongoing”.
He explained, “we had information that some Chinese in Kisseman were packaging nose masks and hand sanitizers, and were sending them to the market so we stormed there with the police around 3:30pm yesterday [Wednesday].
Mr. Prah Ashong told Yen Sempa host, Bright Kwasi Asempa, that “they do them on large scale. We saw thermometers, hand sanitizers and nose masks so we asked how they got those items and they said they run an NGO that donate items to communities, hospitals, organizations, among others so we requested for their documents but they could not produce them readily so are waiting for these documents”.
“We also saw 20-footer container parked with some PPEs and they said they were taking them to Burkina Faso but they are not locally made”, he explained.
Mr. Prah Ashong added that the police proceeded to arrest the two and sent them to Achimota police station for further investigations.
The suspects were however granted bail on Wednesday.
“The nose masks were imported but as to whether it has been registered is the issue, and we are also investigating how it got into the country because some of the nose masks had expired”.
Testing
According to him, samples of the PPEs have been taken to the lab for testing because there are standards for the production of these PPES.
“We have picked samples of the nose masks to the lab for testing and if it falls below the standards, we shall prosecute them”, he explained.
Ghanaian workers
He said, during the arrest, they saw three Ghanaian workers in the house.
“There were three Ghanaians workers, a driver, house help and security man, but later, two Ghanaians also came and said they were the owners of the items in the truck”.
Residency
Mr. Ashong said the Chinese, who were in their 60s, told them they have been in Ghana for the past twenty years.
“The lady is called Wendy and they claimed they have been here for twenty years. They also claimed the property they are living in at Kisseman belongs to them because they acquired it tree years ago”.
By Kweku Antwi-Otoo|3news.com|Ghana]