Erisco food to sue Chioma Egodi N5bn for product slandering if she doesn’t tender letter of apology

PRESIDENT and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Erisco Foods, Eric Umeofia, has threatened to sue its estranged customer, Chioma Egodi, for N5 billion after she posted a negative review of one of the company’s product, Nagiko Tomato Mix, via her Facebook handle.

Umeofia disclosed this during an interview with Arise TV on Thursday, Sept. 28, saying Egodi’s comments adversely affected his business.

He also said that though Egodi tendered an apology letter to his organisation, she had yet to make it public as directed by the Nigerian Police Force (NPF).

He further stated that failure to retract her comment by posting the letter publicly, as agreed, would attract the N5 billion lawsuit.

“I have a credit line of $15 million from two customers, which is now suspended from China! Because they said I am not likely to pay them the credit if they give me. She did not post it as agreed. If she doesn’t post it there, we are going for N5 billion.

“Even that is small money for me to ask of her. $30 million, do you know how much it is? For the past five years, I have never gotten any credit in Nigeria. No loan. For the past three years, I have never gotten $1 foreign exchange,” he said.

On September 17, Egodi posted via her Facebook handle that she purchased a tin of Nagiko Tomato paste and discovered that the product contained “too much’’ sugar.

Replying to a comment on Facebook, she insinuated that the product was killing consumers due to its amount of sugar.

Erisco Foods released a statement describing her allegations as untrue, and she was subsequently arrested, a move condemned by Nigerians, who described it as intimidation.

The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) had also waded into the case and summoned Erisco following the arrest.

Stating that her comments had been malicious, Umeofia said that sugar was declared as one of the ingredients of the tomato mix, which he said was different from tomato paste.

“It is tomato mix, not tomato paste. So this, you can put water and use it to eat bread like butter. On customer demand, we did this, and we have NAFDAC for it. It is thick; you can put water and use it like jam. If you don’t put water, you can use it to cook,” he said.

“If it is a product review, as you people assumed, she would have posted it and allowed people to review. But where she said by herself that our product is killing people…we now began to suspect what is this nonsense? We will not allow our efforts of 40 years to now be destroyed by a syndicate of importers that have been fighting our products since the beginning.

He also added that harsh business conditions in Nigeria could force him to move his business out of the country.

“I have over 3000 people in my factory. We have over N20,000 people we are paying; how can I allow this kind of syndicate to come and destroy me? Is she more than arrest? If I commit an offence, the government should arrest me.

“Mind you, I am here to produce, not because of the money. I am losing money in Nigeria; the money I brought to this country 12 years ago, I don’t have it in dollars again. After this, I may consider leaving this country because I’m losing money,” he said.

Erisco Foods is an indigenous company manufacturing tomato paste, seasoning, rice and other items.