The National Lottery Regulatory Commission has sealed off Nestle Nigeria Plc premises in Ilorin.

The agency's team and policemen led by the Deputy Director, Enforcement and Compliance, NLRC, Mr. Emmanuel Jeminiwa, spent over one hour on Thursday to ensure that one of Nestle's representatives signed a document during the exercise.

Jeminiwa said the commission's Director-General, Mr. Peter Igho, had warned companies and other establishments not to violate lottery regulations.

Jeminiwa said, "The National Lottery Regulatory Commission which is the only agency of the Federal Government regulating lottery business in Nigeria discovered that Nestle Nigeria Plc ran a lottery promo and held a draw on April 10 in Ilorin.

"Unfortunately, this lottery programme was not regularised by the commission. It has made government to lose revenue because there was no remittance to the government."

He stated that 20 per cent of the contributions of any lottery were for the National Lottery Trust Fund, saying that Nestle did not comply with the directive.

  "That is why the Director-General directed that we should seal off the place.  It is not longer business as usual," he said.

Jeminiwa said lottery business in Nigeria must be transparent and credible.

 He added that the abuses that characterised lottery business in the country must be corrected.

Jeminiwa said, "So we have come to this place as a result of the violation Nestle Nig Plc had committed. They ran a promo without regularisation.  It is in the interest of every lottery agency in Nigerian to regularise their operations.

"We do not want to seal off business places but all lottery business in Nigeria must be regularised. The moment people start defaulting, we will seal off the place," he said.

Nestle's Regional Manager, Sales, Mr. Adedeji Adedipe, declined comments when journalists sought his response.

Assistant Director, Media/Public Affairs, NLRC, Rekiya Attah, said the agency was concerned with lottery activities and not mere promotional activities of companies like 'Buy One Get One Free.'

She added that there was a difference between a lottery and a company's products' promotion.

Attah said, "The difference between a lottery and a promo is this: In United Kingdom, there is BOGOF.  That is promotional.  We do not quarrel with it. But where there are tickets, a raffle draw and a winner will emerge, that is lottery activity.

"Since tickets are involved, we need to have records of how many tickets were bought and to make sure that the process of the draw is transparent.  A certain percentage of the people involved in lottery must get something. Promo is just strictly 'buy one get something or one free,' but when it is said 'buy something, the more you buy, the more tickets you get, it is lottery,'" Attah said.