The NAFDAC is being accused of expanding the unemployment problems across the country.
This follows its recent ban on the production, distribution and sales of alcoholic drinks in sachets and PET bottles of 200ml and below.
In a protest march to the NAFDAC Lagos Office , the protesters – Distillers and Blenders Association of Nigeria, Trade Union Congress (TUC) members of FOBTOB , and the NUFBTE , chanted: ‘Adeyeye Save Our Job; ‘Let beverage workers breathe.”
With placards raised high and voices rending the air, they voiced their grievances for the second time at the NAFDAC premises.
“All the issues stated in your letters will be seriously looked into and I can assure you our DG is a mother and she will accord your letter all the necessary attention.”
The Branch Secretary of FOBTOB, Antony Oyagha, expressed the association’s frustration.
He said: “NAFDAC came to seal up our factory and they said because we are producing sachet.“NAFDAC has not been able to give us any tangible reasons why they sealed us up and we know that companies have invested billions of naira; this is in addition to a billion naira spent on campaigns to always inform that the drinks are not meant for the underaged Nigerians and if you look at the sachet it is written on it that it is not meant for under eighteen.
” A situation where Nigerians are already battling with unemployment, NAFDAC wants to expand the problem again by making many of our youths unemployed.
“We asked that what are the indices to put on the table to say that children are drinking the alcohol but non was provided.
We discovered that they want to kill our business and that will not be possible, because anything that makes them succeed means that over 500 thousand of our workers would loose their jobs.
Branch Secretary of NUFBTE, Jeffrey Igein, urged NAFDAC to reconsider its policy and ensure thorough regulation.
In response to the protesters, the Director, Veterinary Medicine and Allied Products at the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Dr. Rametu Momodu, assured the protesters that their case would be looked into; it had been submitted officially through appropriate quarters.
She said, “I know this is a critical issue because jobs are involved and lives are involved. All the issues stated in your letters will be seriously looked into and I can assure you our DG is a mother and she will accord your letter all the necessary attention.
I am not addressing you this way so that you can leave our premises, I’m saying because of the importance of the issue at hand.”