Nigeria: Kano Businessman Wants FG to Clamp Down On BAT

Source from:  Leadership (Abuja) 21 January 2008 01/23/2008

Aprominent Kano based business mogul, Alhaji Bature Abdul-Aziz, has called on the Federal Government to clamp down on the British-American Tobacco Company for refusing to appear in court in a multi-million dollar case instituted against it some days ago. Abdul-Aziz, who is the president of the National Harmonized Traders Association, vehemently frowned at the action by the company, describing it as a slap on the Nigerian judiciary, pointing out that the company in question could not do the same thing in another country. He advised President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua to use his executive powers to ensure that no institution uses its apparatus to operate contrary to the provisions of the laws of the land, and ensure due respect for the Nigerian legal system by foreign multi-nationals. He was also quick to reveal that the same company faced expulsion from Ghana in 2005 and 2006 over similar circumstances, advising that Nigeria should therefore not be seen as a nation which harbours such elements in dishonourable garbs. Abdul-Aziz alleged that sometimes in 1993, the British-American Tobacco Company had to abandon its properties in Niger Republic and flee the West African nation allegedly for evading tax. According to him, "The company must be compelled to face the music, whether it shies away from the legal process or not. They must be made to account for their atrocities", he insisted. He equally urged the government to thoroughly investigate the activities of the company to ascertain how it ran down some Nigerian tobacco companies in the past, which led to their liquidation. Speaking on the recent denial by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on plans to increase pump price of petroleum products, the businessman said that he was delighted at the declaration which, he said, would douse the panic buying and long queues at filling stations in some parts of the country. Enditem