By Innocent Anaba
LAGOS—A Federal High Court, Lagos, Tuesday, sentenced a businessman, Paul Ejiofor to 20 months imprisonment for importing fake Lonart DS tablets into the country.

Ejiofor,  arrested on January 16, 2010 at the Nigerian end of Seme border in Badagry, by  officials of National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC,  and Nigerian Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, was charged  on a seven-count charge of importing fake drugs into the country.

Ejiofor, who first pleaded not guilty to the charge, changed his plea, to guilty to five of the seven counts in the charge.

Ejiofor’s counsel had during the plea for leniency, said he was a first offender  and could still be useful to the society if given a second chance.

The court was asked to take into consideration that the convict never wasted the time of the court by pleading guilty to the charges and that he was now very remorseful.

Trial judge, Justice Abang, in his judgment, observed that Ejiofor and others like him, who engage in the counterfeiting and adulterating drug do not show mercy to their victims, many of whom had been sent to their early graves.

The court sentenced Ejiofor to four months jail term each on the five counts, and they are to run concurrently.