UMUAHIA –– TWO persons, Idoko Mark (38) and Henry Ogbeh (42) have been sentenced to a total of two and half years imprisonment for allegedly impersonating the National Agency for Food Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and forging NAFDAC’s registration number by an Umuahia senior magistrate court presided over by Mrs. Grant Osu. They were sentenced on three count charges of conspiracy, impersonation and forgery. The convicts hail from Benue State. While they were sentenced six months without option of fine, they also got one year each for impersonation and forgery. The sentences would however run concurrently.
According to the prosecuting police officer, Mr. Ambrose Iheanetu, the accused persons committed the offence between 23rd and 25th July, 2004 at Olokoro in Umuahia South Local Government Area. The accused persons, he added, agreed and presented themselves as officers of NAFDAC and were carrying out the duties of NAFDAC by organizing a seminar for the patent medicine dealers at Olokoro Central School.
They were also said to have collected N500 from each of the participants and N12,000 from one Linus Ikwuegbu as part payment for NAFDAC registration fee for his business. He also alleged that they issued a fake NAFDAC certificate number 01/4821 dated July 27, 2004. Also recovered from them were a fake certificate for Precan Chemist of Gowon Estate and a fake NAFDAC identity card bearing the name of one of the accused persons.
The accused persons pleaded guilty to the charges but appealed for leniency due to ill health. While the first accused (Mark) claimed to be an asthmatic and diabetic patient, the second accused (Ogbeh) said that he is HIV positive person.
In a related development, a middle-aged man, Kalu Mba, has been arrested for allegedly impersonating NAFDAC. He was caught in Aba by the head of zonal office of NAFDAC Mr. Benson Kine who alleged that Mba was nabbed while driving a Peugeot 504 station wagon with registration number FG 126F43. The suspect who was said to be a native of Ohafia had claimed that he worked with the inspectorate unit but could not name the head of the unit. The head of the NAFDAC zonal office said that the suspect had faked the agency in Edo, Akwa Ibom, Rivers and Abia states.
