CIGAR BUSINESS IS A MAFIA WORLD

CIGAR BUSINESS IS A MAFIA WORLD

BY ABDULMUMINI ADEKU.

The business of Tobacco farming, marketing, production and importation have being described as a business of the underworld .

In an exclusive investigations by the News Office Desk of Paedia Express Multimedia in Lagos, Nigeria ,it was discovered through an impeccable mole at the heart of Philip Morris International ‘s sales and marketing Division about a decade ago that smuggling was a common practice of all tobacco producers and that it was nothing new.

The insider told this reporter that it was difficult for any tobacco player to remain in the trade and still function at optimal capacity if it was not into the art of smuggling even with the active connivance of government officials.

He noted that a bluechip like Philip Morris International does not operate fully in any of its locations but uses proxies as their main intermediary .

He recalled that about a decade ago when the firm was active in Nigeria,it used a firm called Riccan Global formed by the duo of a German called Heiko Arges and an Indian simply called Sammie.

In the opinion of the mole ,it was a British American Tobacco whistle blowing efforts at pushing them out of the market that led to Philip Morris being asked to pay a huge sum of around N500million for the five brands they were marketing in Nigeria in 2005.

He revealed that though he no longer works at Philip Morris International but he was at the stakeholders forum hosted by the firm at the posh intercontinental Hotel in Lagos to represent his mother who was a key distributor in Ibadan.

According to him this was the second time in less than three weeks that the tobacco giant will be feting stakeholders having done same at Federal Palace weeks earlier.

He went down memory lane to recall the gory details of how one of the biggest tobacco smugglers in the trade was muscled out by rivals in the sector due to envy.

His words:”Alhaji Mohammed Yanrinyanrin was about the single largest tobacco distributor of British American Tobacco in the whole of west Africa and he died just last year,2014,I think they actually killed him in 1996 /1997 when late General Abacha was told  that he was going to be a threat to his regime”

“so over N5billion worth of his products were impounded as contraband at the Lagos Ports for over six months and after that they claimed that upon investigations he was good to go”

“at the gate of the ports they suddenly stopped his goods again ,this time by the Customs who insisted that the goods in question were now expired products and at this juncture they confiscated them and burnt them  and since then the man started to struggle with his business “

“he later had a massive stroke which took its toll on him and he died last year,he was originally from Niger Republic “

In a recent media parley, Mr Akinbode Oluwafemi, Deputy Director of Environmental Rights Action had called on the Nigerian Federal government to prosecute officials of Philip Morris International for illegal importation of cigarettes in to Nigeria due to an expose he credited to the British Broadcasting Corporation[B.B.C].

In his address he made reference to confessions made by former officials of tobacco giant,British American Tobacco on their illegal activities in business.

His words:”during our investigations, we discovered that by May,2015,PMINTL Nigerai Limited got the standards organization of Nigeria certificate for five of their brands  among which includes Marlboro Gold, Marlboro Chesterfield  Blue, Chesterfield Mint Burst and Bond Street Blue”

“In july 2015,PHILIP Morris International through Philip Morris Manufacturing Senegal applied for and go approval of the Senegalese Ministry of Industry and Mines to benefit from the Ecowas Trade Liberalization scheme for the five brands”

“in August 2015,PMIINTL Nigeria Limited applied for and secured approval for the importation of the aforementioned brands into Nigeria from the Federal Ministry of Finance”

“PMIINTL Nigeria limited got approval to import 122 million units of cigarette from September1,201 to March 31,2016”

According to the activist  the blue chip has deliberately flouted the National Tobacco Control Act  2015 by flooding Nigeria with unlicensed ,tax-not-paid- cigarettes.

He assured that if nothing was done  to the tobacco menace in the polity, Philip Morris  will assault the public health of the nation with 122 million units of identified cigarette brands seven months.

He added that the speed of the entire transaction shows that something was strange as it would appear that even government officials have been compromised in the entire project.

Section 29{1]of the National Tobacco Control Act says “No person shall manufacture, import or distribute tobacco products except the person has obtained license or is authorized in writing by the Minister”

“The act also stipulates sanctions for violators in section 30[3a]”a tobacco manufacturer or importer ,upon conviction,will pay a fine of not less than N10,000,00 and a term of imprisonment of not more than 10 years  or both”

“by any other person,upon conviction to a fine of not less than N5,000,000 and a term of imprisonment of not more than five years or both”

He concluded by saying that if PMINTL Nigeria Limited was allowed to go scot free with this illegal importation of tobacco then it will send a dangerous signal to the global community about the nations obligations to the World Health Organization’s charter on smoking.