The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has sealed off a Chinese supermarket in Abuja for allegedly selling expired products labeled exclusively in Chinese without the required English translations.

NAFDAC, in a statement on Tuesday said that the supermarket, located at Azba Mall, 2 Durban Street, Wuse 2, is managed by Chinese nationals who claimed they were in the process of obtaining a NAFDAC license and translating product labels into English, in compliance with regulatory requirements.

Director of Investigation and Enforcement of the NDLEA, Pharm. Shaba Mohammed, who led the enforcement, said the action followed credible information about regulatory violations at the supermarket.

“We conducted due diligence to verify the claims,” he said.

Mohammed said the agency will continue its investigation to determine how such products, which violate labeling regulations, were imported into the country without being intercepted.

He added that the investigation would extend to the warehouse where the goods were stored, noting that 90 per cent of the products on the shelves were labeled in Chinese.

“This action aims to protect public safety by preventing the sale of these items,” he emphasised.

“Selling products labeled in foreign languages without English translation is a clear violation of our laws. If a product is labeled in languages such as Arabic, Chinese, or Hindi, it must have an English translation. More than 90 per cent of the products we found were labeled in Chinese.”

He also highlighted concerns about Nigerian customers being unable to read the labels. “Some of the products are expired and still being sold,” he pointed out.

“Even if the supermarket had a Global Listing permit, the products should have been labeled in English. They have not provided any NAFDAC documents for these items. This is unacceptable, which is why we had to seal the supermarket,” he said.

He stressed that NAFDAC will invite operators of the supermarket for a thorough investigation.

“You cannot operate in Nigeria and disregard our laws. This is a country, and we have rules that must be followed,” Mohammed stressed.

Daniel Bwala, the special adviser on policy communication to President Bola Tinubu, says governors opposed to the tax reform bills are prioritising revenue over the welfare of Nigerians.

The proposed legislations comprise the Nigeria tax bill, Nigeria tax administration bill, Nigeria revenue service establishment bill, and the joint revenue board establishment bill.

One of the most contentious elements is the proposed revision of the value-added tax (VAT) sharing formula, which has drawn widespread opposition, particularly from stakeholders in northern Nigeria.

During a presidential media chat in December 2024, Tinubu said the tax reform bills “have come to stay”.

 

The president also signalled a willingness to make concessions to address stakeholder concerns.

Speaking in an interview with Channels Television on Monday, Bwala said the tax bills are not regional issues.

He added that the debate over the passage of the bills is part of the normal lawmaking process in the country’s legislative system.

 

“There are governors who are from other parts of Nigeria that are not from the north who are also objecting to it. There are some of them who are not vocal on it but have expressed their minds,” Bwala said.

“I choose to make my argument completely out of this prism of regionality. Because that is where it is inflaming the passion.

“The tax reform bills have come to stay, and they will be passed. Let us forget that it is the north vs the south; it is the governors who are going to be impacted.

“It is the governors from states where their income will reduce if the derivation is applied. These set of governors are in the majority of the states and not limited to the north.

“Maybe the governors from the north have decided to be vocal about it.

“But in the midst of this cacophony of positions between the governors and the federal government remember, even the case of local government autonomy wasn’t a case of region, it was still the governors because local government autonomy from the beginning was considered an initiative that would weaken their powers… that is the same approach we are giving to this tax.

“To the governors who believe or think that their revenues are going to go down, to tell them that if our focus is the Nigerian people, then it should be more about the generality of Nigerians who are more than 36 anyway.

“Because the governors are 36 plus the minister of the FCT which makes it 37. But those who will be impacted positively by the implementation of this tax are 200 plus million people in Nigeria.

“Because if you look at the content, you will see a lot of initiatives that will benefit the Nigerian people.”

A former prison officer in the UK has been sentenced to 15 months in jail after being filmed engaging in sexual activity with an inmate.

Linda De Sousa Abreu, 30, was identified by senior prison staff when the footage surfaced online and quickly went viral.

Abreu was arrested at Heathrow Airport while attempting to board a flight to Madrid with her father.

She had previously admitted to misconduct in public office.

Andrew Davy, the governor of Wandsworth, expressed the broader consequences of Abreu’s actions in a statement to Isleworth Crown Court.

He stated that her behavior had undone “less than a day” the years of effort female staff had invested to build respect and trust in the all-male prison.

He also noted that many female staff members reported being “hit on” more frequently by inmates and now felt “considered fair game.”

The court heard that the incident captured in the viral video occurred between June 26 and 28, and further investigation revealed additional misconduct.

A recording of Abreu performing a sex act on the same inmate was discovered on her prison-issued body-worn camera.

She admitted to having sexual relations with the prisoner on another occasion as well.

Judge Martin Edmunds KC described the viral video as part of a pattern of repeated misconduct rather than an isolated incident.

The Metropolitan Police confirmed that investigations into the two prisoners identified in the video are ongoing.

A spokesperson for the Prison Service commented: “While the overwhelming majority of Prison Service staff are hardworking and honest, we’re catching more of the small minority who break the rules by bolstering our Counter Corruption Unit and strengthening our vetting processes. As today’s sentencing demonstrates, where officers do fall below our high standards we won’t hesitate to take robust action.”

The Prison Officers’ Association, which represents prison staff, acknowledged that corrupt individuals like Abreu undermine the efforts of their colleagues but emphasized that such cases represent a small minority.

Cases of the infection human metapneumovirus (HMPV) have surged across northern Chinese provinces in recent days, mainly among children.

The virus – responsible for packed hospital waiting rooms in China and eerily similar to the early days of Covid – has seen a ‘marked increase’ in recent weeks – slightly higher than at the same time last year.

HMPV typically causes symptoms similar to the common cold, including a cough, runny nose or nasal congestion, a sore throat and a fever that clears after around five days.

But more severe symptoms such as bronchitis, bronchiolitis and pneumonia can occur, with sufferers experiencing shortness of breath, severe cough or wheezing.

Experts urged to be cautious of flu-like symptoms over fears it could be HMPV.

Professor John Tregoning, an expert in vaccine immunology at Imperial College London, told MailOnline that it has very similar symptoms – in children at least – to respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), which usually causes mild, cold-like symptoms.

‘It is part of the cocktail of winter viruses that we are exposed to and, like other viruses, it will transmit in coughs, sneezes and in droplets.

‘Protecting yourself by being in well-ventilated spaces, covering your mouth when you cough and washing your hands will all help,’ said Professor Tregoning

Similar to the advice related to Covid and RSV, those infected must ‘rest, stay hydrated and try not to spread it to others’, he added.

‘If you do feel very unwell, go to your GP. As it is a virus, antibiotics won’t have any effect.’

Unlike Covid, there is no vaccine yet or specific antiviral treatment for HMPV and treatment primarily involves managing symptoms.

Jaya Dantas, a professor of international health at Curtin University in Australia added: ‘We need to use a cautious and measured approach, as we know so much more since the Covid pandemic.

‘We need to get tested, stay home and away from others, wear a mask in public and protect our most vulnerable.

‘In young children, the elderly and those who are immune compromised, HMPV can lead to severe cases and can move to the lower respiratory tract and may lead to pneumonia.’

Other experts, however, cautioned that the rise in cases ‘is not something that should cause undue concern’.

Professor Jonathan Ball, a virologist at Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, added: ‘HPMV has been known about since 2001, and has been circulating in humans for at least 50 years – probably a lot longer.

‘Unfortunately, it is associated with pneumonia, particularly in young children, but this is thankfully rare.’

Professor Paul Hunter, an expert in infectious diseases at the University of East Anglia, also told MailOnline: ‘Almost every child will have at least one infection with HMPV by their fifth birthday and we can expect to go on to have multiple re-infections throughout life.

‘It is one of the leading viral causes of respiratory infections in children under five-year-olds.

‘In England, we have seen a fairly marked increase in recent weeks.’

However, he added: ‘One of the issues involved in these types of infection is that they are being diagnosed more frequently, so it is not always easy to know whether, year-on-year, increases are due to actual increases or just because we are diagnosing a greater proportion of infections.’

Health officials in Beijing have downplayed the developments as an annual winter occurrence.

But the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention has warned that rates of multiple flu-like illnesses are on the rise.

In its latest report, for the week of December 29, data suggested that 7.2 per cent of outpatient visits to local hospitals in northern provinces were due to a flu-like illness.

This was up 12 per cent on the previous week and above the levels for the same week every flu season since 2021.

Data for the southern part of the country suggested that 5.7 per cent of outpatient visits were due to flu-like illness.

This was up 21 per cent on the previous week, and also above the level for the same week in 2021 when 4.1 per cent of visits were due to flu-like illness.

It was, however, below the levels in 2022 and 2023.

The UK itself is currently battling its own tidal wave of flu. Surveillance programmes that monitor England’s outbreak suggest flu hospital admissions are quadruple that of a month ago.

Figures show that more than 4,500 beds alone were taken up by flu patients every day last week, up 3.5 times on the same week last year.

Of these, 211 were in critical care – up 69 per cent on the previous week.

Experts also said they expect ‘things to get worse before they get better’ given more people have socialised indoors over the Christmas and the New Year period.