A self acclaimed pastor and business man in Onitsha, Benjamine Nwizu, is now on the run following his complicity in pirating various brands of shaving sticks and selling them to unsuspecting members of the public.

The Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON) on Tuesday sealed off Nwizu’s two factories located at KM 15 Onitsha – Owerri Road, Obosi, another at Nsugbe 3-3 and a shop at R2/667, Main Market, Onitsha, Anambra State.

The SON team, accompanied by policemen from the Lagos State Command, also arrested 26 staff found working in the factories, comprising nine boys and 17 ladies, including two pregnant women who nearly fainted on sighting the police and SON officials. The workers were later released, but SON evacuated about five truckloads of the sub-standard products from the factories, including machines, valued at N200 million.

The Anambra State Head of SON, Albert Wilberforce, told journalists at the factory site at Obosi that the factories belonging to one Pastor Nwizu, who is now at large, were producing fake Dorco Shaving sticks and other nine unbranded sub-standard products, including Dava Soap and Darren Soap.

The closure of the companies, Bendusco International Agency and D AND K, Golden City Investment Ltd. is coming few days after an Onitsha Magistrate Court granted the prayers of SON to search, inspect, take samples, seize, and seal and to compel the respondent to comply with standards of shaving stick and allied products.

Wilberforce explained that this is the second time SON is sealing off the suspect’s factory, adding that in their first encounter with the suspect, over 200 trucks of BIC shaving stick including machines were evacuated.

According to him, the suspect is into faking of different famous products without Nigerian identification numbers. He explained that the original Dorco shaving stick comes from South Korea and that is the one authorised by SON.

The Anambra SON boss advised Nigerians to insist on patronising made-in-Nigeria products that can save their lives and not the ones that will harm them. He declared that the factories will remain sealed and the suspect will face the full weight of the law when apprehended.

Some of Pastor Nwizu’s staff have been lamenting that SON officials did not wait till month end before striking as the runaway businessman is owing them three months’ salary.

•Photo shows one of the fake product factories of Pastor Nwizu being invaded by the SON team.