My Baby: company officials sentenced over My Pikin poisoning

Barewa Pharmaceutical Company Ltd, were charged with the production of killer syrup

Two company officials have been sentenced to seven years in prison over the deaths of at least 80 children. The officials from the company which made the My Pikin syrup were found guilty by a court in Lagos.

After children started dying in 2008, the mixture was found to contain engine coolant.

The judge also ordered that the company be closed and its assets forfeited to the state.

The paracetamol-based syrup, used for treating sore gums, was found to have been contaminated with diethylene glycol, used as an engine coolant. It caused the babies’ kidneys to fail.

My Pikin means “my baby” in Nigerian pidgin, the language widely used in Lagos.

More on the trail and the sentencing

Source: BBC News