A 35-year-old woman, Clara Onah, is to spend the next seven years in the Kirikiri Maximum Prison for allegedly manufacturing and selling fake drugs in Lagos State.
The sentence was handed down on Onah, a graduate of Microbiology from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and a postgraduate student of Mass Communication, of the same institution, by a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos, for manufacturing and selling a fake brand of 200mg of Amazon Amagyl Metronidazole tablets.
Earlier, the prosecutor, Shamaki Umar, had told the court that after her arrest, Onah deceived officials of the National Agency for Foods, Drugs Adminstration and Control (NAFDAC), by telling it that the fake drugs were manufactured in Ogun State but after taking the NAFDAC officials on a fruitless journey in search of the alleged manufacturing company, she opened up that she was the sole manufacturer of the fake drugs.
When the officials traced her to her residence at No 12, Mosalashi Street in Alagbado area of the state, they discovered items she used in manufacturing the drugs, such as weighing scales and labels.
Laboratory analysis of the confiscated drugs showed that they were fake and contained 20 rather than 200mg of Metronidazole.
Onah who was in tears during her plea, begged the court to give her a second chance, adding that she was a graduate of microbiology who emerged with a second class upper division (2:1), and promised never to engage in such acts again if pardoned.
The president of the court, Justice (Prof.) Chuka Obiozor, ordered her to stop shedding crocodile tears, arguing that he would have given her a second chance as a first offender but that some of those who took her drugs had died and were not given any chance to live.
Justice Obiozor said:
“I would have given you a second chance as a first offender, but those who took your drugs and died had no second chance.
You could have stayed in your village to find something worthy to do, if you could not get a decent job in Lagos.”
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