Court grants NAFDAC’s application to vacate subpoena on BBC

A Federal High Court in Lagos on Wednesday overturned a summons to a journalist from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), following a request from the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC).

The court cancelled the summons in the trial of the defendant Chukwunonye Madubuike, after a request, Mr Washington Adume.

The defendant is accused of trading harmful products.

He was indicted again on March 14, 2019, before Judge Maureen Onyetenu, on a single charge of selling Emzolyn with codeine cough syrup.

He pleaded not guilty to the charge and was granted bail.

Remember that in 2018, the production and import of codeine-containing cough syrup were banned after an undercover investigation by the BBC.

The BBC’s “sweet candy codeine” investigation, Mr Adejuwon Soyinka, showed that the syrup was sold on the black market to “get high.”

The research unit of a joint probe, Africa Eye, and BBC Pidgin pushed for the ban.

Accordingly, NAFDAC indicted the defendant in 2018 before Judge Babs Kuewumi, who had been transferred to the Ado-Ekiti division of the court.

The defendant had pleaded not guilty before judges Kuewumi and Oneyetenu.

In 2019, Judge Onyetenu issued a summons to compel the BBC journalist to testify in court.

Meanwhile, the BBC reporter’s lawyers had filed a motion, seeking to dismiss the “subpoena duces tecum ad testificandum” (commanding or ordering a person to appear and bring specific documents or records and give testimony), issued in Soyinka.

In said motion, they had asserted that the reporter had the right to freedom of expression and also had the right not to reveal the sources of information used in the reports.

Onyetenu was again transferred out of the Lagos jurisdiction and the accused was brought back before a new judge, Judge Akintayo Aluko.

When the case was called on Wednesday, the prosecutor urged the court to vacate the summons issued by the judge on the reporter.

Adume argued that when the case was brought to court, the reporter was invited to come and testify, but refused and was hostile, despite the issuance of a subpoena.

He urged the court to rescind the summons in order to move forward with the trial.

The court accordingly granted the request and dismissed the summons.

He adjourned the case until July 13 for the continuation of the trial.

In the charge, the defendant is alleged to have committed the crime on April 24, 2018.

He allegedly sold Emzolyn with codeine cough syrup at the Sheraton Hotel on Akiti Avenue Lagos, a location with no license or registered authority.

The prosecution said the offence was in contravention of the provisions of sections 2(a) of the Counterfeit and Counterfeit Medicines and Unhealthy Processed Foods (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, Cap C34, Laws of the Federation, 2004.