Court Jails Anambra Trader For Repackaging Paracetamol As Antimalarial Drugs

A Federal High Court in Awka, Anambra State has sentenced a middle-aged man, Ogbodo Friday, to seven years imprisonment without an option of fine for circulating fake and counterfeited drugs.

Ogbodo was arrested by the Investigation and Enforcement officers of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control in Onitsha, Anambra State.

When the building was ransacked, officials were said to have recovered packs of falsified Maldox (Sulfadoxine and Pyrimethamine), a brand of anti-malaria tablet.

NAFDAC’s media consultant, Sayo Akintola, disclosed this in a statement on Wednesday.

According to the statement, Ogbodo confessed that he cut Emzor Paracetamol tablets, repackaged them as Maldox (Sulfadoxine and Pyrimethamine) and supplied the same to undisclosed dealers in falsified medical products at the Head Bridge Market in Onitsha.

The convict also claimed that he had been in the business of adulterating and falsifying drugs for more than a year, making huge returns.

Akintola explained that following the evidence, the agency charged him to court.

The statement read, “On January 26, 2022, he was arraigned at the Federal High Court Awka, Anambra State before Justice H.A. Nganjiwa on a two-count charge bordering on possession of Fake Maldox (Sulfadoxine and Pyrimethamine) and packaging of Emzor paracetamol in a manner that is misleading.

“After Ogbodo Friday pleaded guilty to the offence, the prosecution reviewed the facts thereafter and the court convicted the defendant on the two-count charge and sentenced him to five years in prison on count 1 and two years in prison on count 2 without an option of fine.”

The statement also quoted NAFDAC’s Director-General, Prof Mojisola Adeyeye, as commending the judiciary for rising to the occasion when it was needed.

She said the agency would not rest on its oars until all those still in the dangerous business of falsifying drugs to make money at the expense of the lives of fellow Nigerians are brought to book or abandon the nefarious trade.