.L-R: Director, Special Duties, Standard Organisation of Nigeria; Mr Emeka Duru, Director General, Mallam Faruk Salim, Director, Inspectorate and Compliance Directorate, (SON), Engr. Obiora Manafa, Head of Enforcement, National Environmental Standard and Regulation Enforcement Agency(NESREA), Mrs Catherine Omotehinse, during the display of some seized tyres and other items at the warehouse of SON in Lagos on Monday.
The Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) yesterday destroyed cooking gas cylinders and tyres estimated at N300m.
According to the Director-General, Farouk Salim who supervised the destruction at the SON warehouse in Amuwo-Odofin, he said the tyres and cylinders were kept in seven containers.
Salim explained that the tyres were stuffed while the cylinders were substandard and unable to withstand extremely hot temperatures, a notable occurrence with the Nigerian hemisphere.
He said, "We are looking at between N200-300m worth of goods to be destroyed. We just started destroying them now and hopefully, they should be done before the end of the day, inclusive of cylinders and tyres. There are about six to seven containers were stuffed in with those.
"Every tyre is stuffed with five tyres so if a container takes a 1000 tyres then what they are putting there are 5000 tyres in one container."
He added, "The cylinder is from multiple parties. We do not destroy anything without permission from the guilty party or the court. Essentially this was just a combination of all the cases we did and we are destroying them at the same time to make it more efficient.
Salim, however, wished they could be sent back to where the goods were imported. He noted that the destruction of the goods will help safeguard society from unsafe products.
He said, "They are being destroyed because some of them are contraband outright while some other cylinders are new but they are below the standard which means they would most likely explode if there is a high temperature in the country.
“It is just dangerous for the community. I wish there is a way we can send it back to where it is coming from. These substandard cylinders will explode and kill people because there are incidents of things like that happening right now.
"The new tires were stuffed. Stuffed means you have enough tires to put in five containers, you want to save money in containers and you put five tires into each other in one container. Unfortunately, when you do that, the integrity of the client is compromised."
The SON boss advocated for more security of the warehouse as individuals have made their way into the place to steal substandard cables confiscated from manufacturers awaiting destruction.
Salim stated that the agency was working to return to port to enable it combat substandard goods entering the country. To that effect, the SON boss said he had reached to senior officials in the government to get it back to the ports after it was asked out of the ports by the previous administration.
He also said the agency was increasing its surveillance of imported goods with the signing of the African Continental Free Trade Area agreement.
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