By BLESSING OKEZIE, Lagos
The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), is to collaborate with the police in tracking importers of substandard products in the country.
Director-General (DG) of SON, Mallam Farouk Salim, recently made the declaration in Owode area of Ogun State during an enforcement exercise involving over N600 million worth of stuffed illegal tyres.
He said the collaboration with the police had become imperative as part of the inter-agency synergy necessary to stem the incidence of substandard products in the country.
According to him, there was already such a relationship with the Nigeria Customs, which was helping the SON in its enforcement activities, adding that the SON was exploring the possibility of a similar relationship with the police.
“The SON is determined in its resolve at checkmating the importers of substandard products into the country, and a collaboration with the police would help in the direction.
“You cannot do enforcement without intelligence and this is where the police comes in. We see great result in collaborating with the police in that regard”, he said.
According to the SON boss, investigation had shown that the importers of the substandard products usually utilised available security loopholes in carrying out their activities, especially given the vastness of the country.
He said the tyres confiscated were stuffed in 100 containers, and passed through the ports unnoticed, adding that this again had underscored the need for the SON to be present at the nation’s points of entry.
He explained what makes tyre substandard saying, “If the tyres are second hand, expired, the tyres are substandard, stuffed-in etc: “Stuffing means putting a smaller tyre into bigger ones and another bigger one into the biggest one by way of dodging duties and shipping cost to make too much profits, but in the act of making too much profits, they do not look at the quality implication of these tyres”Salim explained.
He equally warned the Nigerian public to be wary in buying products, moreso life-endangering products like tyres.
“We have no idea how these tyres got into this country. We are not at the ports and it did not come through us and they do not have papers with us that the goods have been cleared.
“We do not also have access to the port because if we were at the ports, there is no way we would allow about 100 containers; and you can imagine if another 15 warehouses around the country, we are looking at about 2000 containers slipping through unnoticed,’’ he said.
On the implication, the SON boss said “It is a very dangerous trend and this is why we are still emphasising that the best way to enforce is to be at the point of entry. This is why about 100 containers slipped through the ports and ended up in the warehouse,’’ he added.
The SON boss lamented that tyres with no economic value were like time bombs waiting to explode, maintaining that SON would stop at nothing at ensuring that substandard tyres did not find their ways into the hands of unsuspecting consumers in the country.
Providing a background to his agency’s relationship with the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), he described it as excellent, underscoring the importance of closer synergy among sister agencies to combat the menace of substandard goods.
‘’Our message to importers is that we are coming for unscrupulous importers and we are not ready for compromise; we will prosecute. There is no way we can salvage these tyres so we are going to destroy them,’’ he added.
‘‘We have arrested the manager of the warehouse, but the owner of the product is a foreigner and happens to be outside of the country and we are sure he would come to explain himself. And if he does not, we will just prosecute the manager and anybody involved in this property’’, he said.
Mallam Salim also enjoined members of the public to always insist on buying quality goods, saying that this was the only way to drive Nigeria’s industrialisation.
The Manager of the warehouse, Emmanuel Ogbagu, fielding questions from the SON Director General, said the warehouse employed outside manpower to un-stuff the tyres to be taken to markets across the country.
He said all efforts to reach the owner of the warehouse had proved abortive, saying that he was quite aware of the implications of stuffing tyres
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