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Nigeria: Pfizer Blocks Prosecution
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Daily Trust (Abuja)
28 November 2007
Posted to the web 28 November 2007
Mohammed Lawal Shuaibu
Abuja
Pharmaceutical giant, Pfizer, yesterday blocked the Federal Government from prosecuting it on criminal charges by obtaining an injunction restraining police from arraigning its officials.
The Federal Government is instituting criminal charges against Pfizer before an Abuja Federal High Court for allegedly making Nigerian children "guinea pigs" for testing its meningitis drug in Kano in 1996.
The government said the injunction is preventing it from prosecuting the multi-national company.
Counsel representing the government said "the police could not bring Pfizer officials to court because the company got an injunction at a Lagos court restraining the police from bringing its officials to court for prosecution".
"What Pfizer has done is what a former governor did to stop EFCC from prosecuting them. They went to Lagos State where there is no action pending to procure an exparte order to stop the police from taking steps to serve criminal summons on its officials. What the court has said is that police cannot arrest any of the defendants and bring them to court. And that is why none of them is in court," Mr Babatunde Irukera, one of the government counsel said.
The government lead counsel, Mrs Mariam Uwais, asked the court for a date to enable the complainants time to convince the Lagos court to withdraw the exparte order restraining police from arresting the defendants so that they could bring Pfizer to court for prosecution.
The presiding judge, Justice Anwuri Chikere, adjourned the case to January 28.
Meanwhile the court has also adjourned the victims' application to be joined in the case to December 3 for parties to file their written addresses on arguments for and against the application.
Pfizer is contesting that the move for application for victims to be joined in the case was illegal because the victims' families lacked representative capacity to be involved and that their application does not disclose sufficient interest in the subject matter to enable the court exercise jurisdiction.
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But the government said it would welcome anything that would hasten the process of justice for the drug victims.
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