Federal Government may increase taxes on tobacco as part of deliberate measures to check abuse and prevent smuggling of the products into the country.

Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, disclosed this when he fielded questions from State House correspondents after the meeting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) yesterday.

“Yes, we are part of the campaign against Tobacco. We are implementing the WHO Framework Convention for Tobacco Control. As of Monday, we were part of the ECOWAS meeting to look at how do we raise taxes on tobacco,

“And that meeting would really work to prevent smuggling of tobacco products. We looked at how we can raise taxes on tobacco products.

“It is known that Nigeria has one of the cheapest tobacco, the price of tobacco in Nigeria is probably the cheapest in the world and that will contribute to the abuse.

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“So, that convention and recommendations coming from there would really contribute to raising taxes on tobacco and also generating resources that would go into health,’’ he said.

On the reported harvest of organs, he alerted Nigerians on the dangerous trend, saying that they should always patronise accredited institutions for medications.

“We received advice periodically from the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, from National Security Adviser about goings on around the world.

“One of which is the harvest of organs illegally and it is our duty to alert Nigerians that this is ongoing, they should be careful, they should seek advice, they should patronise only accredited institutions,” the minister said