Osaro Iyamu, Chairman of the Edo State Consumer Protection Committee, led enforcement of the Edo sachet alcohol ban across Benin metropolis on Tuesday, as officials inspected shops and seized prohibited alcoholic drinks in Mission Road, Ekiosa and St Saviour.

The operation marked the end of a grace period given to traders and other stakeholders in Edo State to comply with the restriction.

Also read: NAFDAC seeks tougher penalties for brand counterfeiters

The committee had warned that the extension would expire on 20 September, with enforcement scheduled to begin on 22 September.

Iyamu said the exercise was intended to protect consumers, particularly children who could more easily obtain alcohol in small and inexpensive packages.

“It is also to keep fake, adulterated and potentially harmful products out of circulation,” Iyamu said during the operation.

The committee urged traders to comply with the restriction and warned that selling, hawking or hoarding prohibited products could result in fines and seizure.

The enforcement has nevertheless brought a human cost into sharper focus. Some traders at St Saviour Market resisted the seizures, expressing concern about losses from stock that could no longer be sold.

The reported resistance reflects the tension between a public-health measure and the immediate commercial impact on small businesses holding affected products.

The Edo operation comes as the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, continues a broader national campaign against alcoholic beverages packaged in sachets and PET bottles below 200ml.

The federal prohibition took full effect on 1 January 2026 after a prolonged transition period. NAFDAC subsequently expanded enforcement from manufacturers to markets, retail outlets, motor parks, bars and other points in the distribution chain.

In August, Professor Mojisola Adeyeye, Director-General of NAFDAC, ordered manufacturers to recall affected products nationwide and have them destroyed under the agency’s supervision, with manufacturers bearing the cost.

Adeyeye has consistently framed the policy as a protective public-health intervention rather than a prohibition on alcohol generally.

She said in July that the central concern was children’s access to small, affordable and easily concealed alcoholic products.

“We are doing this because of the children, not because of adults,” Adeyeye said.

NAFDAC’s position has been supported by data it has cited on underage access to alcohol.

A nationwide survey referenced by the agency found that 54.3 per cent of minors and underage respondents said they obtained alcohol themselves, while 47.2 per cent of minors who purchased alcohol themselves bought it in sachets, according to reporting on the agency’s findings.

The regulatory campaign has also moved beyond retail inspections. In July, NAFDAC sealed three factories in Ogun State over alleged production of prohibited sachet and small-volume PET alcoholic drinks.

The agency said it found packaging materials and equipment associated with continued production despite the ban.

The agency has said the nationwide exercise is intended to be sustained rather than a one-off operation, with consumers encouraged to report the manufacture and sale of prohibited products.

Edo’s latest action therefore forms part of a broader enforcement chain that has gradually moved from policy announcement and industry transition to factory inspections, market seizures and product recalls.

The state committee has also widened the focus of its consumer protection work. During Tuesday’s operation, officials arrested a wholesale beans trader who was allegedly found mixing Sniper insecticide with beans to control pests.

The committee described the practice as dangerous and warned against using agricultural chemicals on food intended for human consumption.

The incident adds another layer to the state’s consumer safety campaign, placing food contamination alongside prohibited alcohol sales as areas requiring closer oversight.

The renewed enforcement also comes amid heightened concern over unsafe alcoholic and herbal preparations elsewhere in southern Nigeria.

In September, NAFDAC linked an outbreak in parts of Ondo State to high concentrations of toxic methanol in suspected locally prepared alcoholic and herbal concoctions. The agency reported 182 cases and 48 deaths in its 19 September update.

The Ondo episode is separate from the federal packaging ban and does not establish that sachet alcohol caused those deaths.

It does, however, illustrate the wider public-health concerns surrounding unregulated or improperly produced alcoholic preparations.

For traders in Benin City, the immediate issue is more practical. Products that once occupied ordinary shelf space are now subject to seizure, while retailers face the prospect of losing stock if they continue selling them.

For regulators, the challenge is to ensure that enforcement reaches beyond individual market raids and translates into sustained compliance across manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers.

The Edo State Consumer Protection Committee has indicated that enforcement will continue across the state, while NAFDAC maintains its nationwide recall and monitoring programme.

Also read: NAFDAC seeks tougher penalties for brand counterfeiters

The next phase will determine whether the combined federal and state action can substantially remove prohibited small-volume alcoholic products from circulation while managing the economic disruption faced by businesses that previously depended on their sale.