Nigerian Breweries heads to A’Court over N169m haulage fees judgment

Nigerian Breweries heads to A’Court over N169m haulage fees judgment

Nigerian Breweries Plc said it has proceeded to appeal an earlier judgment by an Ondo State High Court ruling that it pays the sum of N169 million haulage fees to Ondo State Government.

Uaboi Agbebak, the Company Secretary, confirmed in a statement that an Ondo State High Court sitting in Akure on January 27, 2021 gave a judgment against the Company and in favour of the Ondo State Government in respect of haulage fees assessed at N169 million.

In response to the court ruling, the Company said it had filed a Notice of Appeal against the said judgment as well as an application for stay of execution of the judgment pending the appeal.

The Company does not engage in haulage business and does not own or operate any haulage truck whether in Ondo State or anywhere else.

Nigerian Breweries insisted that haulage fees are by law, paid by companies in the haulage business.

It explained that independent third parties who are in the haulage business are wholly responsible for moving the Company’s products across the country and have always been responsible for the payment of haulage fees to the respective authorities.

“Although the Government had initially taken a self-help approach to seal the Depot on the 28th of January, 2021, the Government subsequently re-opened the Depot on the 2nd of February, 2021 following petitions by the Company’s lawyers on the unorthodox steps initially taken to seal the Depot.

“The Company is committed to seeing the matter through to its logical conclusion by the courts with a view to preserving its legal rights.

“The Ondo State Government is our highly regarded stakeholder and partner in progress. As a responsible and law abiding corporate citizen, the Company takes the issue of compliance seriously and will continue to honour all legitimate statutory payment obligations applicable to it,” the company said.