VANGUARD
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), and Trade Union Congress (TUC) have called for the suspension of the Director General of NAFDAC, Prof. Moji Adeyeye, over the recent ban on sachet alcoholic drinks, accusing her of colluding with multi-national companies to kill local companies involved in alcohol production in Nigeria.
The two labour unions, who made the call while protesting the ban on sachet alcoholic drinks by NAFDAC, described the move as an anti-people policy, which it is targeted at killing local manufacturing companies in the Nigeria.
Leading another protest in Abeokuta, Ogun State capital, the Chairman of Ogun State chapter of TUC, Akeem Lasisi and his counterpart at NLC, Hammed Ademola Benco noted that the policy would further worsen the economic hardship currently being experienced by Nigerians.
Members of the Food Beverages and Tobacco Senior Staff Association (FOBTOB) and the National Union of Food Beverages and Tobacco Employees (NUFBE) also participated in the protest.
The protesters who chanted anti-government songs stormed the Ogun State House of Assembly in Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta, armed with placards with various inscriptions such as: “Sachet alcohol is not Nigeria’s problem”, “Our industries must not die of wicked policies MAN save our industries”, “NAFDAC don’t take away our work” and “Don’t create another problem, don’t make us jobless in this biting economy”, among others.
It would be recalled that the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) recently banned the production, distribution and sales of alcoholic beverage in sachets, PET and glass bottles of 200ml and below.
Enforcing the ban, NAFDAC shutdown some production factories for not complying its directive.
This has generated repeated protests by distillers and labour unions across the country.
Lasisi, while addressing the Speaker of the Assembly, Hon. Oludaisi Elemide lamented that the ban would force over 500,000 workers out of job, while over N800 billion investment in the industry would be lost.
He said, “we believe this policy is anti-people, it is not welcomed by Nigerians. Drinking of alcohol is a choice, you either take it or leave it and large quantity of sales in this industry comes from the sales of sachet alcohol.
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