NAFDAC busts forgery syndicate linked to Indians, Philippines, others

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control says it has arrested some members of a syndicate who specialise in the forgery of NAFDAC numbers, certificates and documents of other government agencies, ThePunch reports. 

Disclosing this to the media in Lagos on Tuesday, the Acting Director-General, NAFDAC, Mrs. Yetunde Oni, who was represented by the Director of Enforcement, Mr. Kingsley Ejiofor, said among the documents recovered from the suspects were certificate of registration bearing forged signature of the acting DG of NAFDAC; documents from government agencies, including the Corporate Affairs Commission, Federal Inland Revenue Service, Federal Ministry of Justice and Federal High Court; as well as a payment verification form from a non-existent Barclays Bank.

Oni said the discovery was made after the agency investigated complaints from three countries about some Nigerians who posed as NAFDAC employees to process registration documents for intending importers of regulated products.

Complaints were received from the High Commission of Nigeria in New Delhi, India on behalf of a firm called Bharti Phosphates, a German manufacturer of pet food supplement and one Mr. Akeem from Tunisia, who wanted to confirm whether he should pay money to a company in Nigeria called Samjoe Ventures for the registration and shipment of 5,000 metric tonnes of calcium carbonate.

She said after investigation, it was discovered that the three cases were hatched and executed by an alleged international criminal group headed by Mr. Eze Okoronkwo, a resident of Aba, Abia State.

Oni said, “Okoronkwo had other Nigerian collaborators, Indian collaborators as well as nationals of Philippines, Tunisia, El-Salvador, the United States, Canada, Mauritania, Denmark, Mexico, Greece, Switzerland, Indonesia and Republic of South Korea, who all acted as brokers to the syndicate.

“The syndicate had collected the sum of $13,640, while there were plans to collect a further sum of $57,720.”

The NAFDAC DG added that the group sourced for brokers with dollar or euro account with a promise that the broker would be entitled to 30 per cent or 40 per cent of the proceeds of the venture.

“They contact the companies thereafter through their known websites. (E.g. European Union Distributors website). The victim is then gradually fleeced, while being presented with fake documents,” she added.

Source: ThePunch