*Orders fresh hearing of appeals The Supreme Court has faulted the December 2013 judgment of the Court of Appeal, Lagos, which upheld the conviction of the manufacturer of My Pikin baby teething mixture and two employees. The manufacturer, Barewa Pharmaceutical Company, its Production Manager, Adeyemo Abiodun and Quality Assurance Manager, Egbele Eromosele were in 2008 charged with production of the dangerous syrup which purportedly resulted in some deaths. Justice Okechukwu Okeke, of the Federal High Court, Lagos on May 17, 2012, convicted the three and sentenced to seven years each for conspiracy to sell the dangerous drug. He handed them another seven years for actually selling the syrup, but ordered that the sentences should run concurrently. The judge, who retired a day after the judgment, ordered the company to be compulsorily wound up and its assets forfeited. The charge was initiated by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC). The Court of Appeal, Lagos in its judgment in 2013 upheld the decision of the Federal High Court, but only set aside the aspect concerning the winding-up of the company. In its unanimous judgments in three appeals filed by the company and two of its employees, the apex court faulted the Court of Appeal, Lagos on the ground that it determined the convicts’ appeals on an abandoned notice and grounds of appeal. Justice Bode Rhodes-Vivour, who wrote the lead judgments in the three appeals, ordered that the appeals be remitted to the Court of Appeal, Lagos for it to hear the appeals on the “valid notice/grounds of appeal” filed on July 3, 2013.]]>