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Relevant Facts:
1. By an amended Writ of Summons and Statement of Claim sealed out of the High Court of Lagos State, Nigeria Fijabi Adebo Holdings Limited and its alter ego, Dr. Emmanuel Fijabi Adebo (“Claimants”) filed the suit against Nigerian Bottling Company Plc and National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (“1st and 2nd Defendants”) and sought for declarative as well as monetary reliefs. The principal relief of the Plaintiffs was for a declaration by the Court that the 1st Defendant was negligent and breached the duty of care owed to their valued customers and consumers which includes the Claimants in the production of contaminated Fanta and Sprite soft drinks with excessive benzoic and sunset yellow addictives. The crux of the Claimants case upon their pleadings was that sometime in 2007, the 1st Claimant purchased from the 1st Defendant, large quantities of its products; Coca Cola, Fanta Orange, Sprite, Fanta Lemon, Fanta pineapple and Soda Water for export to the United Kingdom for retail purposes and supply to their valued customers in the United Kingdom. The Claimants further asserted that when the first consignment of the soft drinks from the 1st Defendant arrived in the United Kingdom, they were subjected to laboratory test by the Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council’s Trading Standard Department of Environment and Economy Directorate and the products were found to have excessive levels of Sunset Yellow and Benzoic Acid which are unsafe for human consumption as the addictives are probable cause for cancer. Consequently, premised on the findings of the United Kingdom food control agency and collaborated by the Coca Cola European Union, the consignments were destroyed and as a result the Claimants lost huge sums of money.
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