'My Pikin' manufacturers get seven-year sentence

A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos on Friday sentenced two employees of Barewa Pharmaceutical Company Limited, Adeyemo Abiodun and Ebele Eromosele to seven years imprisonment.

The company was the manufacturer of 'My Pikin' a killer teething mixture, which reportedly killed over 80 children in 2009.

The firm and its employees were arraigned for producing the killer syrup.

They were arraigned on an amended six-count charge following the demise of the company's chief executive officer, Gbadegesin Okunlola, last year.

Trial judge, Justice Okechukwu Okeke, in his judgment, convicted Abiodun and Eromosele on two counts, while he acquitted them on four others.

The Judge sentenced the accused to seven years imprisonment each on the offence, while he ordered the 'compulsory winding up' of the company and its assets forfeited to the Federal Government.

He said, 'The prosecution tendered several exhibits in the trial of the accused persons, but failed to prove evidence that they actually produced the adulterated drugs.

'I hereby discharge the accused persons on counts one, two, five and six, dealing with production and adulteration of drugs, while I find them guilty on counts three and four which is conspiracy and sale of the drugs.

'They are hereby convicted as charged.'