20 witnesses to testify in case against Madabida

Dar es Salaam. About 20 prosecution witnesses have been lined up for testifying in a case against former CCM Dar es Salaam regional chairman Ramadhani Madabida, and five other people.

The hearing of the case, which will run for three days, will take place in Dar es Salaam from April 17 following completion of investigations.

State Attorney Shedrack Kimaro had already read the charges to the respondents at a preliminary hearing (PH) before the principal resident magistrate at the Kisutu Magistrates Court, Mr Huruma Shaidi.

Mr Madabida and his co-accused have been charged with distributing counterfeit HIV/Aids drugs, earning money through deceitful pretences, negligence/failure to prevent offences and causing losses to the government.

Apart from Mr Madabida - who is the chief executive officer (CEO) of Tanzania Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd – the other five co-accused are the company’s operations director, Mr Seif Shamte and the marketing manager, Mr Simon Msoffe.

Others are the company’s assistant accountant, Ms Fatma Shango and Medical Stores Department (MSD) officials Mr Sadick Materu and Mr Evans Mwemezi.

During the March 16 PH, Mr Madabida, Mr Shamte, Mr Msoffe and Ms Shango admitted to the correctness of their personal details including names and their work positions.

Also, they accepted that registration to produce the ARV drugs –‘type TT-VIR 30,’ composed of ‘Stavudine 30 mg,’ ‘Nevirapine 20mg’ and ‘Lamivudine 150mg’ – was issued by the Tanzania Food and Drugs Authority (TFDA).

They further accepted that the plastic container, which was registered for the packaging of the drugs, had a capacity of 60 tablets and that MSD was the company’s main customer and that MSD entered into a contract with TPI on March 17, 2009 to distribute ARV drugs worth Sh5,236,845,200.