A civil society organisation, Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa has urged the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission to publicise the crimes British American Tobacco Nigeria and its subsidiaries committed that made them so willing to cough up $110 million rather than face prosecution.
CAPPA said Nigerians deserved to know how and the extent to which their health had been affected as well as the laws that the BATN and subsidiaries violated for which they incurred such an unprecedented fine.
The FCCPC had in a statement on Wednesday slammed the historic penalty on the tobacco industry firm for what it termed ‘a serial violation of the nation’s laws including the National Tobacco Control Act, 2015’.
The statement disclosed that the Commission on August 28, 2020, opened an active investigation of BATN and its affiliates for which it “gathered, received and procured substantial evidence from forensic analysis of electronic communication and other information/data.”
In a statement issued on Thursday, CAPPA described the fine and other associated actions in the Consent Order as a milestone in the quest to make corporations accountable for their flagrant violations of the nation’s laws and statutes.
CAPPA Executive Director, Akinbode Oluwafemi, applauded the FCPC “for this precedent-setting action. We have consistently advocated that BAT and their ilk should be made to pay for their disregard for our laws and the promotion of an addictive, cancer-causing product to our youths and our people.
“To us, this action sends strong warnings to other tobacco companies in Nigeria and other corporations behind products that compromise public health that justice may be slow in coming, but it will surely catch up”.
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