Gombe State in Northeastern Nigeria has filed a lawsuit against Big Tobacco as has Saudi Arabia.
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The Gombe State government has filed a lawsuit in its state High Court seeking extensive reliefs from the Gombe State High Court against BAT and others.
The focus of the case is the prevention of youth smoking, the amelioration of the impending health epidemic in Gombe State, and recovery of health care costs expended by the state government in treating tobacco related diseases. The state also seeks about N600 billion [US$4.7 million] in special, anticipatory and punitive damages from the defendants. It would be recalled that Kano State joined Lagos State in filing actions seeking to protect the public health from the alleged grievous conduct of the defendants marketing to youths, manipulating nicotine in their products, suppressing research and recent concentration in Nigeria.
A particularly interesting dimension was added to the growing and significant world wide debate on the health effects of smoking and the government's responsibility in that regard, when Saudi Arabian authorities taking a cue from the precedents in Nigeria filed a similar action against big tobacco companies.
Saudi Arabia will seek more than $2.7
billion in damages from international tobacco companies in a lawsuit
due to go on trial in the capital Riyadh on Sept. 11 this year, the
kingdom's health ministry said.
In November, the ministry threatened to sue international tobacco
companies unless they paid the government and patients the full cost of
treatment for tobacco-related illnesses.
This is the first time it has put a value on the claim.
The suit will require companies to pay a lump sum of 10 billion riyals
($2.67 billion) plus 500 million riyals a year for the treatment of
tobacco-related illnesses, the ministry said in a statement on its Web
site. It did not say what period the compensation would cover.
The ministry did not name any companies.
Philip Morris , British American
Tobacco and Altadis are among the foreign firms that sell
tobacco products in Saudi Arabia.
($1=3.750 riyals)
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