Nigeria: FG Urged to Intensify Investigation on Tobacco Coy

Source from:  Daily Trust (Abuja) 13 November 2007 11/14/2007

The Federal Government has been urged to further investigate all the transactions of the British/American tobacco company in the country with a view to unveiling undue processes that surround its operations. Speaking in an interview with newsmen, the president of the National Harmonized Traders Association of Nigeria Dr. Bature Abdul-Azeez (MON) said government should also investigate how the company was privatized because they suspected shoddy deals in the exercise. Dr. Abdul-Azeez also alleged that the invitation of the company to invest in Nigeria had only succeeded in placing the company in a position to take over even retail businesses. He also alleged that what the company was supposed to pay as a duty to the Federal Government even with the concession of 20% had not been paid, even though the company has been publicizing in the national dailies that it had paid huge amounts to the Nigerian government. He further alleged that the British/American company was supposed to be producing 100 percent in Nigeria in their seven years of operations, but they still don't produce even 10 percent, as they normally rely on importation, leaving the farm lands with over 1000 hectares uncultivated. He therefore hailed the measures taken by the federal and Kano State governments in initiating legal action against the company as well as the action of the Ibadan Students Association. Enditem