Beware of fraudsters using my name, NAFDAC chief warns

THE Director-General of the National Agency for Food and
Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Dr Paul Orhii,
has alerted members of the public to the activities of some
fraudsters who used his name to create a facebook account.
In a chat with members of the National Association of
Judicial Correspondents (NAJUC) in Lagos at the weekend,
Dr Orhii, speaking through the agency's Deputy-Director in
charge of Public Relations and Protocol, Abubakar Jimoh,
noted that some members of the public might have already
been defrauded by the syndicate.
The NAFDAC boss further revealed that the fraudsters had
already posted a message on the facebook page asking
people to pay the sum of N250,000 so as to get contract
from the agency.
Jimoh said: “We wish to state that the NAFDAC DG, Dr
Paul Orhii, does not have any facebook page and as such, he
is not the one asking people to pay certain amount of money.
“”This is purely the work of internet fraudsters and we
hereby urge the public to disregard it,” Jimoh said.
On the activities of the agency, Jimoh said that NAFDAC
had made tremendous progress under the current Director-
General, particularly in the prosecution of sellers of fake
drugs.
He referred to a recent judgment of Justice Okon Abang of
the Federal High Court in Lagos who sentenced a fake drug
dealer to three years imprisonment.
According to him, “This is unprecedented in the history of
war against fake drug in Nigeria and we want to commend
the courage of the judge.”
He urged other judges handling NAFDAC cases to take a
cue from Justice Abang's verdict, stressing that the war
against fake drugs should be a collective one.
Jimoh further disclosed that an amendment was being
proposed to the fake drug law to ensure that anyone
standing trial on fake drug related cases did not get bail, so
as to bring about speedy determination of the cases in court.
He noted with dismay that some cases were still pending in
courts since 1995, saying denying suspects bail for accused
persons would definitely facilitate speedy trial.
He further said that part of the amendment being proposed
was that properties of convicted drug counterfeiters should
be sold while the proceeds should be used to compensate the
victims.