BUA Foods has dissociated itself from the list of sugar producing companies planning to sabotage Nigeria’s economy by creating an artificial scarcity with the aim of increasing price.

In a statement, BUA said it had been bombarded with phone calls of customers and concerned Nigerians claiming Dangote and Flour Mills had suspended the sales of sugar and inquiring to know if BUA would toe the same path.

“We have been inundated with calls from our customers that Dangote Sugar and Flour Mills have both suspended sales of Sugar, seeking to know if BUA will follow suit.

“We would like to reassure our customers that BUA is not joining the suspension of sales of sugar,” the statement reads in part.

While BUA said it understood Flour Mills was suspending the sales of sugar “because the 2022 raw sugar allocation has been declined by the government due to compliance issues, we do not understand why Dangote has joined.”

BUA said Dangote and Flour Mills planned to withhold sugar for the purpose of creating an artificial scarcity, profiteering off the masses and later blackmailing the government.

“In our opinion, this stoppage may be intended to create scarcity, force the prices to artificially go up, profiteer even more, and blackmail the government to review the denial of allocation to Flour Mills due to compliance issues.”

According to the statement, “We would like to reiterate that BUA does not intend to join this suspension of sugar sales nor increase prices between now and Ramadan (a peak demand period for Sugar) as the others have done.”

Assuring customers of sufficient supply of sugar, BUA enjoined its dealers not to withhold stock while advising customers against panic-buying.

“We would like to reiterate that BUA does not intend to join this suspension of sugar sales nor increase prices between now and Ramadan (a peak demand period for Sugar) as the others have done,” the company stated.

All efforts to reach Dangote and Flour Mills for comments proved abortive as Anthony Chiejina, Chief Corporate Communications Officer for Dangote Group did not answer his calls.

The allegation of withholding sugar for the purpose of profiteering off the masses has heightened speculations that Dangote Group enjoys preferential treatment from the Muhammadu Buhari regime. 

In 2020, Dangote trucks were allowed to transport cement out of the country despite the border closure imposed by the federal government.