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The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) stated on Monday that there is no reversal on the ban of importing, manufacturing, distributing, selling, and using alcoholic beverages in sachets, PET, and glass bottles of 200ml and below.
Prof Mojisola Adeyeye, the Director-General of NAFDAC, insisted that the ban is in the best interest of Nigerians and aims to save lives.
Adeyeye’s announcement on January 31 about NAFDAC enforcing the ban on alcoholic beverages in sachets sparked repeated protests from distillers and labor unions, expressing concerns that it could result in the loss of 500,000 jobs.
When asked on Monday if NAFDAC would reconsider the ban due to growing protests, the Head of Public Relations Office, NAFDAC, Christiana Obiazikwor, told The Headlinenews.news correspondent that the ban remains unchanged.
Obiazikwor clarified that NAFDAC did not ban alcohol production in larger bottles but rather focused on containers or packaging that a child could easily conceal.
“The alcoholic content in sachets or PET bottles less than 200ml is 30 percent. Beer has four to eight percent alcohol. The Association of Food, Beverage and Tobacco Employers, and Distillers and Blenders Association of Nigeria signed an agreement with the Ministry of Health and NAFDAC in December 2018 that they would phase out the production of alcohol in sachet and PET bottles less than 200 ml by January 31, 2024. The agreement document is available. A five-year phase-out notice should be sufficient.
“They say it’s going to lead to the loss of jobs, but it can lead to the loss of lives as well. So, which is more important? We are not going back (on the ban). We are doing this to save the lives of Nigerians and commuters.
“The schoolchildren buy it and put it in their bags, so we are doing it to protect the children because they can’t take responsibility for themselves; so the leaders and adults need to take responsibility for them. Are we going to kill our children because the economy is bad?” she said.
In response, the Executive Secretary of the Distillers and Blenders Association of Nigeria, John Ichue, insisted that the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed with NAFDAC in 2018 could not be considered a policy document.
Ichue said, “The MOU that we signed in 2018 was not really a policy, and it was signed under duress because the then Minister of Health attempted to ban the manufacturing of pet alcoholic drinks, but he later allowed us to engage in a sensitization effort to encourage responsible drinking and discourage underage access to these drinks, which we have been doing since 2019.
“The MOU is not a policy; the government is currently working on a national alcohol policy which we all agree is the proper way to go. In most countries where a ban on sachet alcohol was implemented, it was not successful. It led to illicit alcohol in circulation.”
Meanwhile, on Monday, angry drug hawkers and touts attacked members of NAFDAC’s Investigation and Enforcement Directorate and mobile policemen during a raid on fake, unregistered, and counterfeit drugs at the Area One Motor Park of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
The enforcement team faced attacks from hawkers and touts at the park who threw stones and other objects at them and journalists monitoring the exercise.
It took the intervention of mobile police who used tear gas and fired into the air to disperse the attackers while the enforcement team and journalists escaped from the park.
However, two NAFDAC vehicles were vandalized.
After the raid, the Assistant Chief Regulatory Officer, Investigation and Enforcement Directorate, Federal Task Force, NAFDAC, Umar Suleiman, stated that the raid followed intelligence from the Department of State Services on the activities of drug hawkers at the motor park.
Suleiman said, “This exercise that we just conducted at the Area 1 motor park is a result of intelligence we received from the DSS since last year. A lot of hawkers were there selling their products and many people patronizing them, and that was why we raided the park.
“The attack is a normal thing for us in the investigation and enforcement department. That is the reason we always go with armed Mopol and Investigating Police Officers in case of any arrest.
“But to my surprise, we had not done half of the work when the drug hawkers absconded but mobilized in full force against us, throwing stones at us and destroying the windscreens of the vehicles.”
Suleiman mentioned that NAFDAC officials were able to seize controlled drugs worth about N5 million. The seized medications included Rohypnol, Dizapam, Tramadol (500mg and 225mg), Cocodamol, and aphrodisiac, among others.
