A 39-year-old man, Mr. Taofeek Ango, has been arrested for allegedly posing as an employee of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control.

It was learnt that the suspect was trying to dupe a baker in Offa, Kwara State, before he was arrested.

Assistant Director, Establishment and Inspection Directorate of NAFDAC in the state, Mrs. Phebean Odu, told journalists in Ilorin on Monday that Ango, a resident of Offa, was arrested by officials of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps on Friday.

She said Ango had allegedly demanded money from the Managing Director of Alafia Bread Bakery, Offa, Alhaji Abdulrasheed Yusuf, to prevent NAFDAC officials from arresting him if he contravened their regulations.

Yusuf was said to have agreed to bring the money to an agreed place. But unknown to Ango, the baker had notified civil defence officials. 

The officials were said to have swopped on Ango as Yusuf was about to give him the money.

He was said to have confessed that he posed as a NAFDAC official and demanded money from Yusuf.

Odu said, "We have decided to expose him to serve as a deterrent to others.  We want to advise the public that anybody who goes about asking for money in the name of the agency should not be given. Rather, we should be informed. This case will be handed over to the police for further investigation.

"The case of impersonation has been very frequent. There was a time we had cases from Patigi, some from Ilorin. This is about the fourth one from Offa.  But Ango is the only suspect we were able to arrest. We are going to let people know how to identify genuine NAFDAC staff.

"We are going to work more on enlightenment by advising people to be more vigilant.  We cannot be everywhere at the same time.  I just see that people are just fearful, because of that, some of them have fallen victims to impostors. Three weeks ago I had a meeting with the bakers and I told them how to go about it."

Also speaking, another official, Mrs. Rose Ajayi, urged people to be more vigilant and avoid falling prey to impostors.

She said once people knew they had complied with NAFDAC’s directives, there was no reason for them to oblige monetary requests from fraudulent people.