*.I brew fake drinks to survive – Suspect



When policemen swooped on 65-year-old Donatus Ogubie in his factory where he brewed fake drinks, they were amazed at his cool attitude. What could have given him the confidence to radiate such coolness?


Some officers and men of the Imo State Police Command have put an end to the activities of the operator of an illegal distilling factory where various alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks are produced in unhygienic environment.

The owner of the illegal factory, Donatus Ogubie, 65, from Ogubele village, Atta in Njaba Local Government Area of the state, however, claimed that he was given approval by NAFDAC to run the factory at its current location.

When Saturday Mirror visited the area, the building was dilapidated, while filth, dust and disorder adorned all the rooms where production always take place.

It was gathered that sometimes in 2005, the man applied and got approval from NAFDAC to process only two products he called ‘Made in Imo’ wines.

Rather than concentrate on those two products, Ogubie went far beyond his bounds to produce dangerous and poisonous concoctions with which he faked top classic foreign wines such as Red Label, Don Morris, Hennessey, MacDowell, among others. It was learnt that during production process, the concoctions are mixed in the three giant plastic tanks placed inside one of the rooms which was used as production hall where later the liquid content were transferred into bottles stacked in the hall.

Recently, the state police command’s Ambush Squad stormed his illegal brewery and Ogubie was arrested. Upon his arrest, Ogubie looked unruffled, insisting that he officially obtained a license from NAFDAC to brew the wines. He also claimed he had been doing that in the last eight years.

Reacting to Ogubie’s arrest, Imo State commissioner of Police, Mohammed Musa Katsina, while conducting journalists round the illegal brewery, claimed that the Ambush Squad acted on the strength of intelligence report regarding the activities of the unrepentant Ogubie.

He stated that following the remote location of the fake brewery, Ogubie had for years, enjoyed adequate patronage from innocent and unsuspecting buyers and had consistently exported the deadly products to such big cities as Lagos, Kano, Port Harcourt, Onitsha and Kaduna before the long arm of the law caught up with him.

“From what we have seen here, you do not need a medical doctor to warn you to be careful because many people have ignorantly consumed these products, with disastrous consequences on their health.

“You don’t need a medical doctor to tell you that when next you want to buy a drink you have to be very careful because you may end up buying your death warrant. Children are now having different diseases, kidney, cancer, liver cancer yet the source of these illnesses are different to dictate. but I strongly believe that this is one of the sources. It is high time we stand up to kick against this illegality.

This man is a merchant of death,” the police boss said. Speaking with reporters, the suspect said that he set up the brewery to make ends meet, stating that the products are not for sale but for local consumption. His words, “This factory is established as a small scale industry not a modern one. We have bottles for different products any one we want to produce we get the bottle and fill them one by one for local consumption.”

He also claimed to have obtained Trade Test Certificates and had tutorials from some of his friends who he claimed studied Microbiology and Laboratory Technology from an undisclosed higher institution in Onitsha which had sharpened his business acumen in brewery.

“I have also applied my natural brain which God gave me to mix the drinks. If anybody opens the drinks you will not differentiate it from foreign made.

“We are Nigerians. We are finding ways to succeed. All those drinks are nice and good for consumption because I made them myself, I refined them and I computerised them in my Hectometre computer before I could refill them. NAFADC knows about it.” According to him he had 19 workers when he started the business before “foreign drinks begin to challenge the local drinks, now I have four workers.”

donphilopus: Have you started??