The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has at last broken its silence over arrest of containers by the body’s enforcement officers, saying it has the mandate of the Federal Government to enforce and checkmate the influx of sub- standards products into the country.
In a statement sent to our correspondent yesterday, the Director of Enforcement and port operations; Engineer Bede Obayi said since importers have devised new methods of bringing in sub-standards products into the country, SON has also developed new strategies to checkmate them.
The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has at last broken its silence over arrest of containers by the body’s enforcement officers, saying it has the mandate of the Federal Government to enforce and checkmate the influx of sub- standards products into the country.
In a statement sent to our correspondent yesterday, the Director of Enforcement and port operations; Engineer Bede Obayi said since importers have devised new methods of bringing in sub-standards products into the country, SON has also developed new strategies to checkmate them.
He said the assignment given to his Director General; Dr Joseph Odumudu by the federal government of Nigeria is to rid the country of fake, adulterated and sub- standard products, pointing out that the organization has been doing so with vigour.
He said looking at the SON’s Act, the organization has not even used all the powers given to it and that more strategies are coming to make sure Nigeria and Nigerians are not consumed by fake and sub standards products.
Engineer Obayi who was reacting to the allegation of arresting of containers on Lagos city roads by the SON’s enforcement unit by the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) said that, neither him nor his Director General will carry out their duties to impede on rights of importers, but insisted that SON must do its job.
“How can you have a container which is moving by night, when you know it is carrying sub -standard goods or did not even register such products with SON? They said we should go to their warehouses, as you know some Nigerians who are bent on not doing the right thing, if we allow such goods to get to their warehouses by night, by morning, the goods are no more and as you know the goods will be sold to Nigerians whom we are to protect.
“As a patriotic Nigerian if we allow such, then we are not carrying out our mandate” Obayi said.
On why the SON cannot hook- up to the Nigeria Customs Service portal, the Nigerian Trade Hub (NTH) to profile its products, Obayi said his organization is working to develop its platform so as to fully operate its online portal and have something to take to the stakeholders and sensitized them, but for now they have to safeguard Nigerians.
Speaking further, he said that because the Standards Organization of Nigeria Conformity Assessment Programme (SONCAP) certificate were being faked by Nigerians in collaboration with manufacturers outside Nigeria, the organization decided to issue SONCAP in Nigeria whenever an importer produces his products manufacturing certificate to them. All these strategies the SON official said are to checkmate sub- standard products.
There has been a cold war going on between SON and the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) over illegal arrests of containers, especially on Lagos roads.
It would be recalled that the founder of NAGAFF; Dr Boniface Aniebonam had argued that the SON Act does not give the organization any power to arrest containers along the road, but to follow up to owner warehouses to effect such arrests.
Aniebonam also accused the organization of breaching the law, which according to him, has led to many importers losing their containers to some fraudsters who possess as SON enforcement agents.
He consequently called on the DG of SON, Dr Joseph Odumudu to carry out his functions within the ambit of the law.
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