Guinness Nigeria Plc has filed a notice to discontinue a suit it filed to challenge the N1bn fine imposed on it by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control in November last year. In a statement on Thursday, one Okey Nwachukwu said Guinness had paid N11.4m to the agency as administrative and service charges after opting to withdraw its suit filed before Justice W. Animahun of a Lagos State High Court in Igbosere.
Guinness had headed for the court seeking to enforce the violation of its right to fair hearing against NAFDAC following a November 9, 2015 notice of sanction issued on it by NAFDAC. In the said notice, NAFDAC said it was imposing N1bn on Guinness as administrative charges
“for various clandestine violations of NAFDAC rules, regulations and enactments over a long period of time.”
The agency claimed that Guinness had been revalidating its expired products without the authorisation and supervision of NAFDAC. Among other things, NAFDAC also accused Guinness of failing to secure the gate of its warehouse and claimed that
“the raw materials used in the production of beer and non-alcoholic beverages by the brewer were permanently opened to intrusion and exposure to the elements and rodents, which invariably affect the integrity of the raw materials.”
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