$110m Fine: CAPPA Asks FG To Disclose BATN’s Offences

A civil society organisation, the Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA), has asked the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) to make public the specific offences for which the fine of $110 million was imposed on British American Tobacco Nigeria (BATN).

CAPPA insisted that 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 organisation made this demand in a press statement issued on Thursday by its Media and Communication Officer, Robert Egbe.

It stated, “Nigerians need to know the full details of BAT crimes that made it willingly agree to dole out $110 million rather than face prosecution. No amount of fine can atone for actions that compromise public health and undermine the economies of nations. This is a slap on the wrist.

The FCCPC had, in a statement released on Wednesday, December 27, 2023, slammed the historic penalty on the tobacco industry firms over 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 its reaction, CAPPA described the acceptable and other associated actions in the Consent Order as a milestone in making corporations accountable for their flagrant violations of the nation’s laws and statutes.

The organisation said, “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,” it maintained.”