Counterfeiters Won’t Stop Until Death Penalty Is Imposed, Onanuga Says

The Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, has advocated the dying penalty for counterfeiters, arguing that they’d proceed their actions except the punishment was launched.

Onanuga made the decision on Wednesday in response to a put up by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) asserting the invention of a suspected counterfeit alcohol manufacturing facility in Aba, Abia State.

Reacting to the company’s report on X, the presidential aide mentioned the operators of such services confirmed no regard for human life.

“These counterfeiters certainly have no conscience. Until we start imposing a death penalty on them, they will never stop their nefarious activities,” he wrote.

However, current laws beneath the Counterfeit and Fake Drugs and Unwholesome Processed Foods (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act prescribes a high quality of as much as ₦500,000, imprisonment for 5 to fifteen years, or each, for offences involving the manufacturing or sale of counterfeit medicine and unwholesome processed meals. The regulation doesn’t prescribe the dying penalty for such offences.

In its account of the operation, NAFDAC mentioned its officers raided a facility at No. 25 Omenazu Street, Aba, following credible intelligence and found that the premises had been getting used for suspected counterfeit alcohol manufacturing beneath unhygienic situations.

According to the company, the suspected operator escaped upon the arrival of its enforcement crew, abandoning a automobile containing packaging supplies bearing the names of Sir Edwards Scotch Whisky and Scottish Hills Whisky, alongside empty bottles and a drum containing roughly 200 litres of liquid.

A search of the premises reportedly uncovered bottle caps, sealing machines, cartons, tanks containing liquid “concoctions” and soiled sieves suspected to have been used within the manufacturing course of.

The officers additionally recovered plastic buckets, 200-litre drums of ethanol and tree bark soaked in ethanol, amongst different supplies.

NAFDAC estimated the worth of the gear, supplies and parts discovered on the facility at greater than ₦500million, warning that the discoveries raised critical questions in regards to the security and high quality of the suspected merchandise.

The operation is the newest in a collection of enforcement actions by the company concentrating on counterfeit and substandard items throughout the nation.

ALSO READ: From Lagos To Abia: 8 States Where NAFDAC Has Seized Fake Products

NAFDAC just lately introduced the seizure and destruction of counterfeit and unwholesome merchandise valued at greater than ₦5.3billion inside one week.

Among the operations was a raid on the Lagos International Trade Fair Complex, the place the company mentioned it confiscated merchandise price over ₦2billion and arrested two suspects.

The marketing campaign in opposition to pretend and unsafe shopper merchandise has additionally drawn the eye of the House of Representatives, which has referred to as for stronger measures to sort out the manufacturing, distribution and circulation of counterfeit and substandard meals and drinks.

The lawmakers cited earlier enforcement operations concentrating on alcohol-counterfeiting syndicates in Lagos and an unlawful juice manufacturing facility in Badagry, Lagos State.

As of the time of submitting this report, neither NAFDAC nor the Presidency had issued a response to Onanuga’s name for the introduction of the dying penalty for counterfeiters.

NAFDAC urged members of the general public to report suspected unlawful manufacturing actions by its name centre or by way of e mail.