Cousin To Former President Goodluck Jonathan, Wants Ban Lifted On Ogogoro

Ex-President Goodluck Jonathan’s cousin Azibaola Roberts has known as on the federal government to carry the ban on Kaikai also referred to as Ogogoro (native gin).

 

”Immediately l have the privilege to prick your conscience on some basic items, basic items like Kaikai. As I converse to you, Ogogoro is against the law within the books of state governments, stated Mr Roberts. “Ogogoro distillation is a fundamental occupation of our individuals. How, for God’s sake, that Ogogoro is labelled as a bootleg drink for over 60 years since after independence is what baffles individuals like me.”

 

Mr Roberts, who made the decision whereas talking with journalists in Yenagoa, famous that it was regrettable that Ogogoro remained below the ban.

 

The manufacturing and consumption of the regionally distilled drink Ogogoro was banned in June 2015 by the Bayelsa authorities following the dying of 20 individuals in Ondo after taking the drink.

Different states within the Niger Delta area subsequently outlawed ogogoro.

 

He additional acknowledged it was a ploy by the colonial masters to protect their distilleries in Europe and model gins produced by artisanal distilleries as “illicit” and puzzled why the discriminatory tag had but to be scrapped.

 

In accordance with him, in contrast to Ogogoro, alcoholic manufacturers brewed overseas aren’t completely different from regionally brewed ones, including that the idea native drinks are inferior was inaccurate and with out a scientific foundation.

He lamented that the inaccurate perception had hindered the expansion of the native drinks trade, which might have helped scale back the extent of poverty because the native drink might turn into an export commodity to earn international foreign money.

He known as on politicians, particularly lawmakers, to expunge the “obnoxious legal guidelines from the statute books.”

 

“These international drinks are native drinks of individuals elsewhere, similar to our personal Ogogoro is brewed right here. The one factor is that we’ve got didn’t determine the potential of our personal and act accordingly,” he reasoned.

 

Mr Roberts, a lawyer and human rights activist, argued that fundamental science clearly confirmed that “alcohol is alcohol and produced by the identical fundamental strategy of distillation.”

 

“Folks spend as much as N60,000 per bottle on international gins and don’t do the identical for the native alcohol,” he acknowledged. “There isn’t a distinction between the 2. They’re all combination of water and alcohol.”