WE WILL LOOK INTO YOUR GRIEVANCES..... PATE TELLS PROTESTING FOBTOB MEMBERS

Prof Ali Muhammad Pate

"We have heard your grievances. This is a listening Government and we are going to discuss with partners, Trade Union Congress and other members on the way forward.” Pate.

Amidst the accompanying protests that followed the ban on the production of sachet and pet bottled alcoholic beverages by the Federal Government, members of Food, Beverage & Tobacco Senior Staff Association have taken a petition to the Office of the Coordinating Minister, Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Professor Ali Pate.

Professor Pate, while receiving the FOBTOB members on Wednesday in Abuja, assured that the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare would endeavour to address their grievances.

In his appeal to the aggrieved group, the Minister, represented by the Ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Kachallom Daju mni, 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.”

Earlier in his speech, the National President, Food, Beverage & Tobacco Senior Staff Association, Comrade Jomoh Oyibo expressed the association’s dissatisfaction on the ban imposed on the manufacturing, sales and consumption of alcoholic beverages in sachets and pet bottles by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration Control (NAFDAC).

He explained that NAFDAC has 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, that the timing for the ban is not right, he therefore appealed to the Ministry for timely intervention to abate the association is currently undergoing.

This was contained in a statement issued and signed by Patricia Deworitshe Mrs, Director Press and Public Relations Department of the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare.