Man arrested for posing as FDA official and issuing 'fake' certs

A 37-year-old man, who has been posing as a staff of the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) and issuing 'fake' product registration and training certificates to individuals and entities in the La, Nungua and Medie areas in Greater Accra has been arrested.

Frank William K. Addo, was arrested by the FDA with assistance from the Police Criminal Investigations Department (CID) on Monday, March 26, 2018.

According to the Communications Manager of the FDA, Mr James Lartey, the suspect was picked up at Nungua upon a tip-off by an individual whom the suspect had attempted to dupe for the second time.

The suspect, he said was still in police custody for further investigations.

According to Mr Lartey, preliminary investigations have established that the suspect has issued a number of certificates to individuals who had attempted to register their products with the FDA.

"The Authority has received a number of reports and complaints of some persons posing as FDA officers, going round in some parts of the country and extorting monies from both clients and potential clients of the FDA", Mr Lartey said.

No officer of the FDA, he said is mandated to receive monies from any client outside FDA’s cash offices and that, "clients and persons who wish to test or secure certifications for their products must ensure they take official receipts for all payments made to the FDA", Mr Lartey cautioned.

He appealed to the public to notify the FDA about persons whose activities they deemed could pose danger to the public.