Killer Products Demand Tougher Penalities

The recent judgments slamming a N5 million fine on a producer of counterfeit Goya Extra Virgin Olive Oil by a Federal High Court in Abia State, and N1.5 million fine for importation of fake drugs by a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos are obviously inadequate punishments for offences that could cause deaths, organ failure, cancer, permanent disability and other severe health risks, Ejiofor Alike reports

Despite the dangers of fake and substandard products in Nigeria, the laws have continued to treat manufacturers and importers with kid gloves.

Adulterated and fake food items, and other substandard products such as tyres, electrical cables and wires, among others, have devastating consequences – fatal accidents, fire disasters, organ failures, cancer, permanent disability and other severe health risks – which cause deaths.

Unfortunately, the culprits are treated with kid gloves, which have encouraged the proliferation of these crimes against humanity.

Light punishments have also continued to frustrate the laudable efforts of the Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, and the agency’s war on the merchants of death behind this evil business.

In Nigeria, the issue of counterfeit, adulterated, fake, substandard and expired drugs, and harmful foods, is regulated by the Counterfeit and Fake Drugs and Unwholesome Processed Foods (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act.

Sadly, this legislation, which operates alongside the NAFDAC Act, prescribes very light punishments for offences under the Act.

For instance, in September 2026, a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos convicted and fined a Lagos trader, Elijah Chigbogu, and two companies linked to him over the unlawful possession, importation and distribution of fake and unregistered drugs.

Justice Musa Kakaki convicted Chigbogu and the companies, Prolife & Well Pharmaceutical Limited and God of Elijah Nigeria Limited, after they pleaded guilty to a four-count charge filed by the NAFDAC.

Chigbogu and the companies were found in possession of the products on July 28, 2025, at their premises in Idumota, Lagos Island, and Ikotun-Egbe, Lagos.

The court slammed a ridiculous fine of N1.5million on Chigbogu following a plea bargain agreement reached between the defendants and the prosecution.

 NAFDAC argued that the offences contravened the provisions of the Counterfeit and Fake Drugs and Unwholesome Processed Foods (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act and the Food, Drugs and Related Products (Registration, etc.) Act.

Last month, NAFDAC also secured the conviction of a businessman in Abia State, for manufacturing and selling counterfeit Goya Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

The unscrupulous businessman, Innocent Okoye, who is the Managing Director of Chikason Industrial Nigeria Limited, was sentenced to five years imprisonment, with an option of a N5 million fine.

Justice K. O. Ogundare of the Federal High Court, Umuahia, Abia State, delivered the judgment on Wednesday, October 28, 2026, after convicting Okoye on two counts.

The conviction followed an enforcement operation by NAFDAC’s Investigation and Enforcement Directorate in April 2026, during which officials uncovered a facility in Aba allegedly used to produce and distribute the counterfeit product.

In January 2026, NAFDAC had warned consumers against counterfeit Goya Olive Oil being sold in polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic bottles and presented as genuine imported products.

At a media briefing in Lagos, the agency’s Director of Investigation and Enforcement, Martins Iluyomade, said investigators had uncovered an illegal production facility at Oke-Arin market, Idumota, Lagos. He said operators at the facility allegedly mixed palm oil with colouring agents before repackaging the mixture as Goya Olive Oil.

However, it was not in all cases that light sentences were handed down for fake substances-related offences.

Earlier in October, a Magistrates’ Court sitting in the Ojodu Magisterial District of Ogun State sentenced one Samson Okonkwo to jail with hard labour without any option of fine for selling counterfeit Coleman wires and cables.

Magistrate OP Mobee handed down the sentence in Charge No. MOJ/138C/2025 between the Commissioner of Police and Okonkwo.

Okonkwo was arraigned on April 10, last year, on a four-count charge, including unlawful possession of forged Coleman wires and cable products and selling of products bearing forged Coleman marks.

According to the judgment, 317 coils of cables bearing Coleman wraps and labels were recovered from the defendant.

Reacting to the judgment, an excited Managing Director of Coleman Technical Industries Limited, Mr. George Onafowokan, said the judgment marked the first time, to his knowledge, that a person involved in the fakery of cables was convicted in Nigeria.

However, in his reaction to Okoye’s conviction by a Federal High Court in Abia State, a former National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr Olisa Metuh, argued that a five-year jail term or N5 million fine was inadequate punishment for offences that could cause serious illnesses, organ damage and preventable deaths.

Describing the punishment as a “mere slap on the wrist”, Metuh, who is the Director of Mobilisation and Organisation of the Renewed Hope Ambassadors (RHA), insisted that the penalties should reflect the potential harm caused, the offenders’ intentions, their financial gains and the degree of recklessness involved

He called for substantially longer prison terms, comparable to those prescribed for grave violent crimes where offences result in death or serious injury.

Also last month, the Forum of Former Members of the Enugu State House of Assembly urged the federal government to consider legislation prescribing capital punishment, non-bailable status and total asset forfeiture for offences involving counterfeit products, illicit hard drug trafficking and related criminal activities.

The forum, through its chairman, Denge Josef Onoh, made the call in a legislative memorandum and proposed draft bill forwarded to President Bola Tinubu, the National Assembly and the Chief Justice of Nigeria.

In a statement he issued, Onoh described the criminal activities of the syndicates involved in industrial-scale counterfeiting, falsified pharmaceuticals, and transnational hard drug trafficking, as a direct threat to national security and public health.

He argued that the existing judicial measures and fines had failed to deter them.

Onoh cited figures from the NAFDAC, saying criminal syndicates were systematically counterfeiting 149 standard consumer brands and essential medicines.

On her part, the Director-General of NAFDAC, Prof. Adeyeye, had also proposed the death penalty for drug peddlers, particularly those whose actions result in the death of children.

 Adeyeye emphasised the need for stricter penalties against those she described as “merchants of death”, who prioritised illicit profits over human lives.

Adeyeye cited a case involving the importation of dangerous doses of Tramadol, a powerful drug that could cause serious harm or even death, regretting that despite the grave nature of the offence, the culprit received a minimal sentence of five years in prison and/or a fine of N250,000.

“Who wouldn’t pay a fine of N250,000 and go on to commit the same offence?” she queried. 

 As Metuh also pointed out, the punishments for fake product offences should be proportionate to illicit profits and the damage suffered by the victims.

Since the use of these substances can lead to the death of their users, the death penalty for the offenders can serve as a deterrent to the perpetrators of these crimes.