By Jerry Uwah
Lagos
7Up Bottling Company Plc has been dragged before a Federal High Court in Lagos for allegedly supplying contaminated Aquafina table water which infected the crew of a vessel, MT Marina.
The plaintiff, DAI Brothers Ltd claims that it lost huge contracts for the supply of table water to a number of vessels because of the contaminated water from 7UP Bottling Company.
The suit comes barely two weeks after the Nigeria Bottling Company (NBC) lost a case over health hazards posed by Coca-Cola and Sprite.
The case against 7Up was instituted before Justice Rabiu Shagari.
The company claimed that Seven Up supplied contaminated Aquafina Table Water to its officials.
The plaintiff alleges that the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) is withholding the result of the laboratory analysis of the sample of the contaminated water in connivance with 7UP. The company is therefore seeking an order compelling NAFDAC to release on oath, the report of Laboratory analysis on Aquafina Table Water, vide its Notice of Complaint.
The applicant in an affidavit sworn to by its Managing Director, Ibrahim Yaro, alleged that sometime between November and December 2015, his company purchased Aquafina Table Water from Gjonny Enterprises, an accredited distributor of Seven-Up Bottling Company Plc.
He said that the water was for supplies to the vessel M.T. Marina – one of its major clients.
The company said that it was shocked when informed by the owners of the Vessel M.T. Marina that the Aquafina Table Water was contaminated.
He said that some crew members who are foreign nationals of the M. T. Marina, who drank the water, immediately took ill and were evacuated and flown to India for medical treatment.
Yaro alleged further that following a close scrutiny of the Aquafina Table Water, it was discovered that the said water contained particles and foreign bodies of black substances.
The applicants thereafter, lodged a complaint to the director of NAFDAC in Apapa, and officials of NAFDAC investigation and Enforcement Directorate, recovered from the applicants company 22 packs of 150cl Aquafina Table Water.
