Four Nigeriens and two Ghanaians have been arrested for allegedly re-bagging inferior rice into sacks of known rice brands and selling them to the unsuspecting public. The Nigeriens are Musa Yusif; 20, Idrisu Ibrahim; 18, Hamida Rahman; 19 and Saini Saadu; 18, while the Ghanaians are Ibrahim Alhassan; 24, and Fuseini Mohammed; 32. Their arrest by the Food and Drugs Board (FDB) was effected at a warehouse at Okaishie in Accra where the dubious activity was taking place. The head of the Food Inspectorate Division of FDB, Kofi Essel, who briefed the Daily Graphic on the arrest, said the six were in the process of re-bagging the inferior rice when the team swooped on them, following a tip-off. According to him, some of the rice sacks which were being used were Sultana 50kg, Big Joe 25kg, Royal Feast, and Uncle Sam rice. He said the suspects went round to buy the empty sacks of all the above brands on the pretext of selling them. “Some of them even pick the sacks from refuse dumps. “These men pick these sacks from restaurants, hotels and schools where rice is used in large quantities. Once they have hundreds of these sacks, they fill them with the inferior rice which is cheaper. They then sell these fake products out to retail shops who then sell them to consumers,” he said. According to him, a trend that was even dangerous was the fact that the suspects embossed fake security features on their products which made it difficult for even the inspectors to find out their dubious acts. Mr Essel advised consumers of the various rice brands to check the seals anytime they wanted to purchase rice. He said sacks which had old stitch holes in them were likely to have been re-bagged. Some retailers are also fond of buying cheap products with the motive of selling them for more profit and according to him, those products could be sub-standard. The suspects have been handed over to the Police Headquarters for further investigations into the matter.