Federal Government Agrees To 6-Month Jail Term & N50,000 Fine For Public Smokers

The Federal Government has okayed the National Tobacco Control Bill, which will see people who smoke in illegal public areas get hit with a N50,000 fine or a 6-month jail term. Corporate offenders would get fines ranging between N1million and N5million, while their chief executives would get jail terms of 1 to 2 years.

This was disclosed by Information minister Mr Laban Maku and Minister of Health Prof.Onyebuchi Chukwu at the end of the Federal Executive Council meeting.

The ministers added that all forms of advertisement of tobacco is totally banned under the proposed law.

He added that while the law forbids government from accepting gifts from tobacco firms, it also bans the firms from sponsoring any public event.

When it finally becomes a law, he said 50 per cent of the packaging of tobacco is expected to be used to warn the public of the risks involved in smoking.

“The whole idea is to make it stiffer,” Chukwu said. “In 2004, Nigeria along with other nations of the world signed the 2004 WHO framework convention on tobacco control, there was then the need to bring our laws in conformity because we actually as a country ratified that convention the next year which was 2005.

“So that attempt by the Executive will eventually culminate in the passage of a revised or amended Act as it were in 2011 by the sixth session of the National Assembly.

“The bill is to protect Nigerians against the harmful effects of tobacco. We know that tobacco is dangerous, tobacco is the cause of many deaths and it causes so many illnesses.”

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