The Ashanti Business Owners Association has vehemently denied allegations made by the Ashanti Regional Police Command that some of its members are involved in the importation of fake insecticide products.
This comes after the police arrested three persons for allegedly dealing in fake products and subsequently organised a press conference on Friday, July 21, warning the public against the use of these products — a move the group has described as an attempt to collapse their businesses.
The police claimed the suspects were dealing in counterfeit insecticide products that do not meet the standards of the Ghana Standards Authority and are, therefore, harmful to the public.
Reacting to the allegations, the Ashanti Business Owners Association dismissed the claims, emphasising that the said products are neither fake nor inferior.
Speaking at a news conference in Kumasi on July 20, the group clarified that the insecticide products in question meet the standards of the Ghana Standards Authority and are, therefore, legitimately being sold on the market.
“How is it that the said fake product has a manufacturing date, an expiry date and a batch number, but the one Ghana police service claims is genuine has no manufacturing date, no expiry date and has no batch number?
“Kill It’ is a product that is not manufactured in Ghana. It is manufactured in the People’s Republic of China for a company that is based in England. What happened is that there is an agent for Ghana, and agents for other African countries.
“So the products the police saw within these shops were from products from Nigeria. We all know that as a country, we operate a liberal market so far as we are able to satisfy regulatory requirements. It is true that there is an agent for Ghana, but when it comes to the market.
“There are no restrictions on what kind of goods can come into our market. The products they identified within the market are genuine products from the same company, that the sole producer from China to England, distributed to other countries that Nigeria is part of. On that note, we want to tell the public to disregard such speculations; they are not fake,” said the executive secretary of the Ashanti Business Owners Association, Charles Kusi Appiah-Kubi.
They have, however, assured the public of their readiness to collaborate with the police in clearing the market of fake products, while addressing the current confusion.
“We also know that there are a lot of products that come to our market through the Nigerian market, canned malt, Indomie, popular milk, among others. With the kind of information being circulated by the police, are they then suggesting that these products are not genuine? This cannot be so. Such issues destroy businesses. We are ready to cooperate with the police to ensure the right thing is done,” Charles Kusi Appiah-Kubi added.
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