BY GODWIN OBI
Suppliers of life-threatening materials will soon be in trouble, as the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) is currently reviewing its Act to ensure that such dealers are jailed and not fined.
The Director General of SON,Pharm Farouk Salim dropped the hint yesterday in Lagos during the inspection of destruction of materials intercepted by the organization.
Salim said those who deal in such materials are economic saboteurs who kill industries and people who innocently buy the products.
According to the DG, “In the last National Assembly, we went to them to review our act to make sure that peddlers of life-threatening materials are jailed and not just fined.
“They have passed the bill but the president could not sign it into law.
“So, it is back in the National Assembly and hopefully very soon it will be with the president.
“I am sure the president will sign that amendment and those individuals selling threatening items will be jailed immediately they are caught,” he said.
The SON helmsman further said that some of the products to be destroyed were by the orders of the court.
The DG said that the agency also seized some tires, which were not fit for use while some were new but stuffed with other used ones, explaining that the essence is to motorists and commuters from encountering bust tyres.
According the DG, “As a result, the tires lost their integrity and are dangerous to society, while the ones looking new are used tires, which were pressed and polished to look new.
“The fakers of the motor oil lubricants intercepted in Calabar used popular products so our Nigerian lubricant manufacturers that are successful have to contain with individuals trying to copy their product.
“Nobody copies a product that is not successful; the only problem is the copying is a bad one.
“The product you are seeing behind does not belong to that popular company. It was being copied and they were taken to court, convicted and the court gave us the permission to confiscate the product and destroy them,” he said.
Salim pointed out that the Nigerian cable industry is successful and good and they help the organization to identify the fake ones.
He said that SON, sometimes, uses their intelligence to fish out the people because their activities were affecting the economy of the country.
“Due to the policy on local content, we need to make sure that our indigenous companies are protected.
“These cables are supposed to be copper but they are either iron or copper coated, when used in building, it gets hot and causes fire,” he said.
On the value of the products, the SON director general said that it ran into billions of naira, adding that they would keep seizing the products to force the perpetrators to stop.
“To your eyes, these products don’t look nice but an unscrupulous person can take them, clean them up, and send them to the market, and make billions of naira from them.
“The seized items are safe in this environment as the place is monitored by police and civil defence
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2023-10-12
