…Substandard goods flood markets, stakeholders, govt agencies, victims raise the alarm
From Wole Balogun, Ado-Ekiti
sunday Aina, an accountant, just got over a hectic day at work and wanted a chilled bottle of red wine. And straight to one of the shops lined up on the street in Atikankan area of Ado Ekiti he went. He got home and settled down to savour his drink. He had expected that unique taste of alcohol capable of sending some warm feelings down his throat. But alas! He got a sour, rather tepid taste of the liquid that escaped the strange bottle he had bought. It was then he looked closely at the bottle of wine and eventually realised that he had been conned.
Bisi Joseph, a primary school teacher, had saved a great deal for months in order to purchase a N17, 000 handset at the Fayose market, along Ikere-Ado Road in Ado-Ekiti.
At last, the money was complete, thanks to the mini cooperative group of colleagues she had joined at work. And off to the Fayose market she went on a fine afternoon.
At the entrance of the market, one of the patronising young men had succeeded in taking her to his shop at a far corner of the market. In a matter of 20 minutes, she was happily coasting home with the new handset.
Two days later, the unfortunate happened, as the electricity supply which had gone off days earlier suddenly came on. Elated Bisi made to fix her handset to charge its battery for the first time for six hours so that the battery could be strong enough for subsequent use. But it turned out a costly mistake, as the handset blew off in a matter of minutes betraying the reality that it was the popular ‘chinko’ product.
Aina and Bisi are just two among hundreds of unfortunate residents in Ekiti who have fallen prey of merchants of substandard products. The fake products compete well with standard products in terms of availability in the market. They abound in almost all the shops on the streets of Ekiti, even in some super markets.
Drinks, tyres, paints, foodstuffs, electronics gadgets, clothing materials, and what have you.
A survey recently conducted by an Ekiti based Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) made a shocking revelation about the high rate of substandard products that find their way into Ekiti State.
The report, dated November 2, claimed that every four out of 10 products that are daily supplied into the booming Ekiti market, especially Ado Ekiti, the state capital, are substandard products.
The report further noted that many unsuspecting members of the public have been inflicted with ailments as a result of taking substandard food items such as canned meals or drinks.
The smuggling of the substandard products has sadly become a big business, organised by a cartel of pirates whose main preoccupation is to imitate standard products making the waves in the market.
The cartel have their own distributors, many of whom are the retail marketers and shop owners themselves. So there is a need for the government agencies saddled with the responsibilities of phasing out fake products to be on the trail of the cartel and their co-travelers.
But what is the relevant government agencies doing about the menace?.
Newly appointed state Coordinator of the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) in Ekiti, Mr. Ayeni Oyebola said items worth N4.5 million were recently destroyed in Ado Ekiti.
He said the items were seized from distributors and sellers in different parts of the state after failing quality assurance test.
Among the products burnt by the agency were fake and substandard tyres, expired supermarket products including breakfast cereals, packed snacks, detergents, soaps, wine including soft drinks and fruit juices.
Also burnt were electrical and electronic items such as television sets and cables as well as substandard LPG Cylinder.
According to him, no fewer than 100 outlets had earlier been raided in conjunction with security agencies by the agency staff at different locations across the state following tip-offs by patriotic members of the public and sustained surveillance of staff.
He lamented that most of the seized items had fake company names, fake brand names, fake country of origin and imaginary expiry date embossed on them.
He said apart from blacklisting distributors of such items, the agency was also on the trail of the real manufacturers and their other collaborators, as they would be made to bear the full weight of the law, in addition to paying penalties ranging between N500,000-N3 million, depending on the volume of their committal, including cost of destruction as well as risk arrest and prosecution.
He described the burnt items as life threatening products, saying most of them had either expired for over three years ago or were entirely fake, while they were fraudulently labelled as being newly made and kept on the various supermarket shelves for unsuspecting residents to buy.
Ayeni further noted that perpetrators of substandard and fake products, and their collaborators were worse than terrorists, vowing that no efforts would be spared in unravelling their true.
He explained that while a single fake product like electric cable and iron rod could travel miles and wipe out several households through sudden fire or building collapse, terrorists on the other hand do have particular targets in mind during their operations.
Ayeni called on traditional rulers and local government functionaries to partner with the agency in its bid to rid the society of killer-products, by telling their subjects to cultivate quality culture and refusing to buy cheap products suspected to be fake.
He also urged the generality of the residents to constitute themselves into whistle-blowers by promptly reporting circulation or sale of suspected fake product.