The Acting Director-General,
NAFDAC, Mrs Yetunde OnI said the discovery was made after the agency investigated
complaints from three countries about some Nigerians who posed as NAFDAC
employees to process registration documents for intending importers of
regulated products.
The National Agency for
Food and Drug Administration and Control says it has arrested some members of a
syndicate who specialise in the forgery of NAFDAC numbers, certificates and
documents of other government agencies.
Disclosing to the media in
Lagos on Tuesday, Mrs Yetunde Oni, who was represented by the Director of
Enforcement, Mr Kingsley Ejiofor, said among the documents recovered from the
suspects were certificate of registration bearing forged signature of the
acting DG of NAFDAC; documents from government agencies, including the
Corporate Affairs Commission, Federal Inland Revenue Service, Federal Ministry
of Justice and Federal High Court; as well as a payment verification form from
a non-existent Barclays Bank.
Complaints were received
from the High Commission of Nigeria in New Delhi, India on behalf of a firm
called Bharti Phosphates, a German manufacturer of pet food supplement and one
Mr. Akeem from Tunisia, who wanted to confirm whether he should pay money to a
company in Nigeria called Samjoe Ventures for the registration and shipment of
5,000 metric tonnes of calcium carbonate.
She said after
investigation, it was discovered that the three cases were hatched and executed
by an alleged international criminal group headed by Mr. Eze Okoronkwo, a
resident of Aba, Abia State.
Oni said, “Okoronkwo had
other Nigerian collaborators, Indian collaborators as well as nationals of
Philippines, Tunisia, El-Salvador, the United States, Canada, Mauritania,
Denmark, Mexico, Greece, Switzerland, Indonesia and Republic of South Korea,
who all acted as brokers to the syndicate.
“The syndicate had
collected the sum of $13,640, while there were plans to collect a further sum
of $57,720.”
The NAFDAC DG added that
the group sourced for brokers with dollar or euro account with a promise that
the broker would be entitled to 30 per cent or 40 per cent of the proceeds of
the venture.
“They contact the companies
thereafter through their known websites. (E.g. European Union Distributors
website). The victim is then gradually fleeced, while being presented with fake
documents,” she added.
In a related development,
the agency paraded a distributor of fake Peak Milk and a manufacturer of fake
water used in mixing injections, while disclosing that it had raided the
premises of one Mrs. Nkiru Okoro of Ezedams Nigeria Limited located along
Kilometre 16, Badagry Expressway, Ojo, allegedly being used as a base for the
production, distribution and sales of suspected counterfeit alcoholic
beverages.
Oni added
that on February 24, the Federal Task Force on Fake and Counterfeit Water
Production arrested one Mr. Daniel Ezekwelu for allegedly producing fake water
for injection in two compounds at Ojoto, a village near Nnewi in Anambra State.
She said,
“During the raid, two under-aged girls were found filling and sealing the fake
water for injection under Ezekwelu’s cover.
“Items recovered include plastic containers, gas
cylinders and packs of the fake water for injection packed as 100 to 10m vials
and labelled ‘sterilised water for injection BP’, with manufacturing date of
2015 and expiry date put at 2020, and said to be produced by Hossanna Laboratories
Limited, Surrey.”
A transport
vehicle containing several cartons of suspected counterfeit Peak Milk from the
East was intercepted by the agency as it arrived Lagos by 4am on February 17,
according to Oni, adding that the alleged owner, Onyekachi Ikegwonu, had been
arrested.
All the
cases, according to NAFDAC, will be transferred to the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission for prosecution.
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