By Ifeanyi Okolie

A 35-year-old man, Jude Ozokuwere, who is alledged to be a  member of a syndicate that  specializes in adulterating and distributing olive oil in Lagos and other parts of the country, has been arrested by the police at Trade Fair Police Station;The suspect, who is currently helping the police in apprehending other members of the syndicate, told Crime Alert that poverty drove him into the crime.

It was gathered that the suspect was apprehended after police detectives received   intelligence reports that members of his syndicate  were cocking Goya Olive Oil bottles with vegetable oil using fake cocks and labels at the Atiku Market located opposite the Trade Fair Complex along Lagos Badagry Expressway.

Sources at Trade Fair Police Station intimated Crime Alert that importers of Goya Olive Oil, Ekulo Group of Companies had petitioned the state Commissioner of Police, Umar Manko, complaining that their product was being adulterated.

The Police boss, after receiving the petition, reportedly directed all the Divisional Police Officers Lagos state to be on the look out for persons involved in the crime.  However, on the CP’s instruction, the Divisional Police Officer, DPO Trade Fair Police Station, Robinson Eregare, was said to have  swung into action and raided Atiku Market arresting Ozokuwere in the process.

One of the sources that craved anonymity told Crime Alert;  “after we received information on his activities, we monitored him for about one month because we wanted to catch him.  Last Tuesday, we learnt that he had started producing, then we stormed his warehouse and caught him red handed.”

The suspect, a native of Orlu in Imo State told Crime Alert during an interview that “I was jobless for eight years after I was deported from Libya and some of my friends introduced me into this business.   They said instead of hanging around doing nothing, I should start adulterating olive oil.

They took me to a place at Iyana-Oba where I bought empty Goya bottles for N250 per dozen and they also took me to the Lagos Island Market, where I bought fake Goya labels and cocks for  N2500 per bundle.  I also bought a carton of 15 litres of vegetable oil for N7000 and then, I went to the waste bin at Trade Fair complex to pick disused cartons of olive oil.

After producing, I went into Trade Fair complex to advertise the product and my targets were mainly northerners buying goods for transportation to the northern part of the country.   A carton of the original oil is sold at N6,500 but I sold mine for N2,500.

A lot of them bought from me and I started producing plenty.   I knew what I was doing was wrong but I kept on doing it because it was my only means of survival.  I am married with three children and I have suffered a lot.  I don’t know how the police knew about my activities but I was in my shop last Monday producing when they came to the place and arrested me.”

Reacting to the arrest, the Marketing Manager, Ekulo Group of Companies, Emeka Oramadike, commended the police for assisting them to stamp out adulteration of their product.   He also assured members of the public of the company’s effort in ridding the market of adulterated Goya olive oil.

“Some time last year we discovered that our products were being faked, we sent a petition to the police and National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC,   requesting their assistance to arrest those involved in the adulteration of our products.

We are grateful to God that the police have been able to arrest a suspect and they are on the verge of arresting more suspects.  We want to assure members of the public that we are not relenting until we clean out the market of this fake product,” he stated.