Nnamdi Eze, a trader in the Iyana Ishashi area of Lagos, allegedly into adulterated oil, has run out of luck following his arrest by the police.
Eze, 32, reportedly siphoned adulterated oil into empty Total Oil Company jerry cans and branded them with the company’s label – Total Quartz.
Sunday PUNCH learnt that Eze sold the fake product wholesale to his accomplice customers in Oyo and Anambra states at prices below the market rate.
It was gathered that his illegal business reached a dead head when a police team from Area D, Command, Mushin, intercepted a printer with about 700 empty jerry cans bearing the Total labels.
The printer, one Joshua, reportedly told the operatives that Eze engaged him to print the labels. A police source told our correspondent that another 110 jerry cans of different litre sizes were recovered from Eze’s shop in Iyana Ishashi.
Eze told the police that he learnt how to produce engine oil sometime in 2017 from one Stephen at Marine Beach, Apapa, and started his own production after four months of apprenticeship.
Eze was arraigned on Wednesday at an Ikeja magistrates’ court on four counts bordering on forgery and adulteration.
A police officer, privy to the details of the case, stated that the printer would be used as the prosecution witness in the case based on the advice of the Directorate of Public Prosecutions.
Eze, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges and elected summary trial.
The presiding Chief Magistrate, Aje Afunwa, granted him bail in the sum of N200, 000 with two sureties in like sum. The case was adjourned till April 16, 2020 for mention.
