No Hiding Place For Fake Wine and Drug Manufacturers in Lagos.

By Ebere Chukuwma

 For years, the sale of fake wine and pharmaceutical drugs have been a thriving business in Lagos and other parts of Nigeria. This is because the Fake product manufacturers who are scattered all over the country have already established the market for their products which are competing with the brand owners product.

The situation is worse in Lagos where the fake product manufacturers are scattered in different parts of the state. The fake product may have got a match in years, Imohimi, a no-nonsense Cop and the state Commissioner of Police  who is out to protect Companies of their product brands from fakers who are  out to rub them of their  expected profit from their multi-million naira  investment.

The Value News  learnt that most of the Companies which products  were being faked had several attempts over the years to  protect their market but that was how far they could go. It was gathered that those who could not cope with the activities of the fake brand manufacturers were forced to close shop, thus throwing  thousands of people into unemployment.  

With the support of Ibahim Idris, the Inspector General of Police, Imohimi was said to have prepared himself to deal with the the fake product manufacturers to rid the Lagos market of adulterated products, particular wine, fruit juice and Pharmaceutical drugs.

Giving an insider information, the police Commissioner disclosed that on Tuesday, December  18, 2018, the Command received information about a fake wine brewery in an uncompleted one-story building at Aboru area of Oke Odo, where alcoholic beverages were being produced.

Armed with the information, he was said to have directed the Area Commander, Area P, Alagbado, to mobilise to the scene,” search and seal off the illegal factory”. The fake product product manufacturer who were caught in the act according to a source ,was said to have  made arrangement to push their products into the market  both within and outside Lagos before the police Crack team from Area P,Alagbado, swooped on them  to close down the illegal factory  for further production to avoid  sending victims to their untimely death.

 The Area P, police team who went on the operation were said to have recovered during their search of the factory 4000 bottles of already produced, packaged  and labeled adulterated wine of different notable brands. This is in addition to 10,000 empty bottles,, drums of different  sizes and various chemicals and reagents that were used as raw materials used for the manufacturing of the fake  wines and fruit juice.

 Imohimi,  confirmed that   ”assorted fake wine and fruit juice were produced” at the fake factory and pushed into the Nigeria market.  The Lagos police boss, who could not wait to get all the detailed information about the factory was said to have visited it to see things himself.

His worry was that  the suspect, a 48 year -old man has no requisite qualification or license to embark on such business. The suspect was said to have told the police  that he was still awaiting  the approval  from the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration, NAFDAC, to ”commence  commercial production of the  drinks to save his face.

Residents of the Oke Odo area were said to have celebrated the arrest of the suspect , who they described as a ”criminal because of the number of customers who have died taking his fake wine and fruit juice.

The Inspector General of Police Intelligence  Response Team, led by  Abba Kyari, a  Deputy Commissioner of Police, who had had busted many notorious crime syndicates may have set the stage  to deal with the fake product manufacturers in Lagos when they uncovered  an illegal drug factory at Ikotun area  in Alimosho local government area of the state.

Acting on information, the IGP team was said to have swooped on the illegal drug factory where substantial production and packaging  ready for distribution  of fake drugs to different markets across the country were carried out.

Kyari and his team members were said to have arrested four suspects  in the act of producing the fake suspected drugs with the use of machines fabricated locally for processing, manufacturing and packaging of the suspected of the suspected fake drugs.

According the police DCP,  the items recovered from the illegal drug factory at Ikotun were plastic buckets of different types,  suspected fake drugs, cartons  of packed fake drugs for distribution, large quantity of  unprocessed chemicals and  other substances that were used in manufacturing the suspected fake drugs and forged Pharmaceutical papers.

Jimoh Moshood, a DCP, and acting Force Spokesman disclosed that four suspects have been arrested in connection with the manufactured suspected fake drugs at Ikotun, Lagos, ages between 22 and 47 years, noting that investigation was still ongoing to  arrest other suspects on the run.

 He confirmed that the suspects would be prosecuted as a deterrence to others in the same business. There are indications that the the suspected recovered fake drugs , fruit juice  and the Pharmaceutical drugs would be handed over to NAFDAC, for further Investigation.

Recall that as part of the inter agency relationship,  the Nigerian Customs Service, NCS, would hand the 59  ”40” Containers loaded with tramadol intercepted at the seaports to the agency for further Investigations.

 Joseph Attah, a  Deputy Comptroller of Customs disclosed that 40 of the ”40” Containers were interceted at Apapa port, Tincan Island, 10 and Onne , 9. the Court had earlier given a judgment  for the destruction of 12 tramadol ”40” Containers.