The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has sealed shops stocked with fake engine oil and various kinds of cable wires in different areas in Lagos State.
It also raided major markets in the state as part of its ongoing efforts to stem the tide of substandard products in the country.
Speaking after the raid, the Director, Inspectorate Compliance Directorate, Standard Organization of Nigeria (SON), Engr. Bede Obayi, said before the raid , intelligence gatherings were done to identify those behind the importation and sales of substandard products in the market, assuring that action will be taken against unscrupulous businessmen step by step and sector by sector.
Obayi, said various products sized fails for non-compliance with requirements of the Nigerian Industrial standards and global best practices.
He also warned that any cable dealers found circumventing quality assurance requirements would be prosecuted in line with the SON Act 14 of 2015.
“We’ve carried out zero tolerance for sub-standard goods, we’ve done total eradication and we are now speaking of reduction. There is no place in the world; there is no country that can boost of total eradication of substandard products. What we are saying now is that we want to reduce it to extreme minimum and if we can get that it will be a very big achievement. We want to start from somewhere; if we can achieve reduction, it will be as good as eradication,” he said.
He said: “The use of lubricants touches on all vehicles, industrial machines of various types, hydraulic systems, electric transformers and other things. It is obvious that most of our daily activities depend directly or indirectly on use of lubricants and it is therefore necessary that every stakeholder be aware of good and substandard lubricant.”
He reiterated the agency’s commitment to ensuring the safety of lives, part of which informed its recent raiding of various market.
He expressed concern over the non-compliance by importers of these products, maintaining that the agency would stop at nothing to bring sanity to the market where this substandard products are being sold.
He advised dealers of fake products to have change of attitude in the manner they do their business and stop cutting corners.