News

JUST IN: CAPPA Warns Nigerians Against Burna Boy’s Vape Deal

Published

2 years ago

April 16, 2024

391 Views

Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) has condemned a five-year deal between Grammy Award-winning artiste Burna Boy’s company, BrkFst, and Aspire North America, LLC, a subsidiary of Inspire Technology Inc. for the manufacture and distribution of vaping products in Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, and Europe.

According to CAPPA, Burna Boy’s BrkFst brand, as detailed on its website and in news reports, sets out to promote cannabis and fashion culture.

However, Nigeria presently classifies cannabis as an illicit substance due to its potential to worsen the country’s challenges with drug proliferation, abuse, and narco-terrorism.

It warned that the business collaboration between Aspire North America, LLC, and BrkFst is likely to engender aggressive marketing of cannabis vaping and e-cigarettes, including vape pens, e-hookahs, JUULs, and other electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS), which will further worsen the nation’s Non- Communicable Diseases (NCDs) burden.
CAPPA’s Executive Director, Akinbode Oluwafemi said:

“We are really disappointed that Burna Boy rather than promote healthy lifestyles and noble causes among the youth, has chosen to throw his influence behind habits that cause dangerous health consequences.

“The vape deal is one of the strategies by the tobacco and related industries to use social and cultural influencers like Burna Boy to create the impression that vaping is safe, especially among young, upwardly mobile Nigerians.”

However, contrary to what its promoters would have the public believe, CAPPA pointed out that vapes are banned in no fewer than 34 countries. Some others including the United States and China, which permit vapes, impose heavy regulations on their use.

In January, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced plans to ban disposable vapes in The United Kingdom to protect children’s health and discourage its rising use among teenagers.

Oluwafemi, criticized the tobacco industry’s relentless efforts to make its products appealing to vulnerable groups by producing e-cigarettes in a variety of attractive colours and flavours and using socialites to promote them.

He noted that despite claims that e-cigarettes contain fewer of the over 7,000 toxic chemicals found in smoke from regular cigarettes, aerosols from e-cigarettes still contain harmful and potentially dangerous substances, including nicotine, volatile organic compounds, heavy metals like lead, and carcinogens.

Akinbode added: “E-cigarette promoters claim their products can help people quit smoking. However, evidence shows that these so-called alternatives to tobacco smoke, including vapes, are not healthy at all.

“They are all part of the tobacco industry’s tricks to trap victims, especially young persons, in their web of death and disease. Nicotine used in vapour products is highly addictive and can damage your heart, arteries, and lungs, increasing the risk of heart attack, stroke, and chronic lung disease.

“Just early this month, a study by the American College of Cardiology investigating possible links between vaping and heart failure found that people who use e-cigarettes are significantly more likely to develop heart failure compared with those who have never used them.”
CAPPA noted that the tobacco industry is desperately notorious for its unlawful tactics to recruit new users of its products, so that its shareholders can enjoy immoral profits. At the same time, the public is left to bear the huge financial and health burden of diseases and economic losses caused by their products.

Last December, the Lagos State Signage and Advertisement Agency (LASAA) found that its logo was unlawfully used in the advertisement of the Brkfst vape cigarettes, in Lekki, contrary to tobacco control laws. LASAA swiftly condemned the advert.

CAPPA’s Policy and Research Analyst, Zikora Ibeh urged Nigerians and the government to watch out for more of such industry tricks and plots to undermine the hard-won victories of tobacco control efforts.
“There is a l

atest spin to the tobacco industry. They are flooding black markets with new nicotine products touted as safer alternatives and fashionable. Sadly, these products are just as lethal as any other conventional offerings by them.”

They also reinforce a behavioural pattern that can dissuade smokers from quitting while initiating a new generation of non-smokers, particularly children and adolescents to take up smoking and vaping.

We urge the government and public health advocates to step up vigilance against these deadly products and deceitful claims of the industry.” Ibeh added.

Related Topics:CAPPA Warns Nigerians Against Burna Boy’s Vape Deal For

Up Next

JUST IN: Orbunde’s Wife, Cook Regain Freedom 4 Days After Abduction

Don't Miss

BREAKING: Kaduna Assembly probes El-Rufai’s loans, directs committee to summon ex-gov

Click to comment

News

Police confirm Kogi APC Chairman’s Murder by Bandits

Yunusa’s vehicle was reportedly intercepted by the suspected bandits during a kidnapping operation along the Itobe–Ochadamu Expressway, around Ojuwo Olijo in Ofu Local Government Area of the state, on Thursday, August 27, 2026.

Published

21 hours ago

August 28, 2026

OCHEFA

11 Views

•Ishaq Yunusa

Kogi State Police Command on Friday confirmed the murder of the Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Dekina Local Government Area of Kogi State, Ishaq Yunusa.

Yunusa was killed in an attack by suspected bandits.

His death has thrown family members, friends and APC supporters into mourning, with calls for the immediate arrest and prosecution of those responsible.

The Public Relations Officer, ASP Saliu Oyiza Afusat, confirmed the incident in a statement issued on Friday.

She said the attack occurred at about 5 p.m. on Thursday when armed assailants emerged from the surrounding bush and opened sporadic fire on motorists.

According to the police, security agencies are intensifying operations in the area, while personnel are combing the surrounding forests in a bid to rescue any abducted victims and track down those responsible for the attack.

The command says efforts are ongoing to restore security along the affected route.

News

President Tinubu Orders Comprehensive Forensic Audits of MDAs, IPPIS

The exercise will establish the nature and extent of weaknesses in Government’s control system, and determine how such weaknesses have been exploited.

Published

21 hours ago

August 28, 2026

OCHEFA

11 Views

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has directed the Minister of Finance and Co-ordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr Taiwo Oyedele, to oversee and coordinate a comprehensive forensic audit of Federal Government systems.

The audit will include a review of the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS), Federal Government agencies, and their administration and internal controls.

Bayo Onanuga,Special Adviser to the President(Information & Strategy), in a press release on Friday, said that President Tinubu’s directive follows the Federal Executive Council’s resolution on August 19, 2026, in response to findings by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) on “fake agencies”, ghost workers, and other control failures.

The exercise will establish the nature and extent of weaknesses in Government’s control system, and determine how such weaknesses have been exploited.

The review will comprise two interconnected components. The first will focus on a forensic audit of Government systems, particularly IPPIS and related payroll, personnel, pension and financial-management platforms.

It will examine reported cases of ghost workers and payroll fraud, reconcile the figures identified by the ICPC, trace how fictitious or ineligible persons were enrolled, and review access, identity, biometric and bank-account controls.

The exercise will also examine the interfaces between IPPIS and other government platforms, including GIFMIS, Remita, the Treasury Single Account (TSA) and Sub-TSA, to determine whether fraud resulted from system defects, process failures, inadequate segregation of duties or deliberate circumvention.

The second component of the audit will cover all Federal Government agencies, departments, commissions, councils, parastatals and other government bodies.

It will establish a definitive inventory of such bodies and verify their legal basis, while examining how entities obtain official recognition, budgetary consideration, correspondence privileges, office facilities and access to government systems.

The exercise will assess governance, procurement, internal-audit, and oversight controls across Government to close systemic weaknesses that could allow irregular entities or persons to access public resources.

President Tinubu directed that the exercise be conducted with the highest standards of independence, professionalism and forensic integrity.

The audit team will have access to relevant government systems and records. It will collaborate with the ICPC to ensure that the review complements all ongoing investigations, prosecutions and recoveries.

President Tinubu expects the exercise to go beyond identifying individual cases of fraud or administrative failure by strengthening the architecture of Government, closing systemic loopholes, improving data verification and reconciliation, reinforcing accountability, and ensuring that only duly constituted entities and eligible personnel have access to Government resources.

The exercise underscores the President’s commitment to strengthening transparency, accountability, fiscal governance and institutional integrity across the Federal Government.