Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Professor Ali Pate has assured that the Ministry would endeavour to address the grievances borne by the members of the Food, Beverage & Tobacco Senior Staff Association.
Director (Information) of the Ministry, Deworitshe Patricia announced this in a statement issued on Wednesday, February 21, 2024.
TheFact Daily recalls that the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) had on Monday, February 5, 2024, banned the manufacturing, sales, and consumption of alcoholic beverages in sachets and pet bottles. This in turn had caused an uproar and protest across the nation.
According to the statement, the Minister gave the assurance to resolve the feud while addressing members of the association who were at the Ministry’s Headquarters on Wednesday in Abuja on a peaceful protest on the ban of sachet and pet bottled alcoholic beverages.
While appealing to the aggrieved group, the Minister, represented by the Ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Kachallom Daju, promised to look into their complaints to chart a way forward:
“What l am saying now is that we have heard your grievances, this is a listening Government…we are going to discuss with partners, Trade Union Congress, and other members on the way forward”, she said.
Earlier in his speech, the National President, Food, Beverage & Tobacco Senior Staff Association, Comrade Jomoh Oyibo expressed the association’s dissatisfaction over the ban imposed on manufacturing, sales, and consumption of alcoholic beverages in sachets and pet bottles by NAFDAC.
He explained that NAFDAC had recently banned and sealed over 25 companies producing sachet and pet bottled alcoholic drinks with the reason of curbing alcoholic abuse which has affected the entrepreneurs, dependants, and the workforce negatively.
He asserted that considering the present economic dynamics in Nigeria, the timing for the ban was not right. He, therefore, appealed to the Ministry for timely intervention to abate the situation the association was currently undergoing.
