Posted by By Ngozi Uwujare on
What on earth could have forced a ‘dispenser' to take over the credentials and business of his pharmacist master after his death? Or how can one explain the motive of a man, old enough to be a father, who indulges in an illegal business of packaging deadly substances as teething powder for little children?
What on earth could have forced a ‘dispenser' to take over the credentials and business of his pharmacist master after his death? Or how can one explain the motive of a man, old enough to be a father, who indulges in an illegal business of packaging deadly substances as teething powder for little children?
Those were exactly the big time trade of Messrs Adebowale Ademokoya and Obinna Mbadinuju before they were nabbed by officials of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) recently.
According to NAFDAC's Director of Enforcement, Mr Dioka Ejionueme, Mr Adebowale Ademokoya of Shadraks Pharmacy, in Ogundimu Estate, Alimosho, Lagos was producing several two-litres and one-litre syrup of popular medicines such as Paracetamol, Chloroquine, Mist Magnesium Trisilicate, Vitamin C, Cough syrup etc which he distributed to many clinics, patent medicine shops, drug markets and pharmacies.
Ademokoya has a fake B.Pharm (degree) certificate purportedly from the University of Benin in 1990. He also has a fake M.Sc Pharmacology/Therapeutics (degree) certificate of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, purportedly issued in 1992.
NAFDAC recovered from him several fake NAFDAC registration certificates for many of his spurious products as well as fake Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN) certificates of Registration/ Retention of Premises for the years 2001 to 2004.
Ejionueme said that when NAFDAC enforcement officers burst his illegal pharmaceutical manufacturing outfit, he absconded from Lagos. After several weeks of being on his trail, the agency eventually arrested him in Ogun State and brought him back to Lagos for interrogation.
"It took more than a week after his arrest and verification visits to the office of the Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN) to establish that Ademokoya was not a pharmacist and did not possess any of the certificates he was claiming to possess. Even after his arrest, this fake pharmacist took another two weeks of interrogation before he admitted that he was not a pharmacist," he added.
Explaining why he was into the faking business, Ademokoya claimed that as an employee of one late Shadrack Olorunto, he was only paid a salary of N15, 000 per month which was barely enough for him to keep body and soul together. But on the sudden death of Olorunto who owned the credentials, the coast was clear for him to take over the business and see to its day to day running.
The second suspect, Ejionueme stated that before he was caught by the long arm of the law, Mbadinuju specialised in faking the popular children's teething powder, Ashton & Parsons, by packaging aspirin powder concocted with corn starch and selling them as the real product.
He explained: "Aspirin is not recommended for use in children under 12 years as it affects sometimes fatally, the developing liver and kidney of children. Aspirin causes what is known as Reye's Syndrome, a severe metabolic disorder which is life threatening in children."
Mbadinuju was not alone in this deadly business as he had a comrade-in-crime in a printer, Mr Omotayo Ogunnaike, to help him print the labels.
When confronted, Mbadinuju was said to have refused owning up to the charge. "It took one week of questioning and the corroborative evidence of the printer against this fake manufacturer of Ashton & Parsons before he admitted his long time indulgence in the dangerous practice of faking the popular children's teething powder, said Ejionueme.
When asked why he decided to be an enemy of children, the suspect would not talk but shyly buried his head in hands in shame.