A coalition of consumer rights advocates today staged a protest at the Lagos office of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) over the agency’s proposed enforcement of a ban on sachet alcoholic beverages.

The protest, led by Olufemi Lawson under the banner of the Coalition for the Protection of Consumers’ Rights, followed a press conference by NAFDAC in which the agency’s Director-General, Professor Mojisola Adeyeye, was reported to have announced the commencement of enforcement actions against sachet alcohol products.

Addressing protesters and journalists at the scene, Lawson described the planned enforcement as draconian, economically insensitive and poorly thought out, arguing that it contradicts the Federal Government’s efforts to tackle unemployment and economic hardship.

According to the coalition, the proposed enforcement would unfairly punish manufacturers, distributors and consumers, while exposing what it described as regulatory inconsistencies within NAFDAC.

Lawson alleged that sachet alcoholic beverages currently in the market were duly tested, registered and approved by the agency, questioning why the same products are now being classified as dangerous.

The coalition also disputed claims that sachet alcohol products contain excessively high alcohol content, stating that licensed distilleries in Nigeria operate within internationally accepted alcohol-by-volume standards, further dismissing environmental pollution arguments, noting that sachet packaging is widely used across other consumer goods sectors, such as water and detergents.

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