SON seeks jail term for peddlers of life threatening materials

The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) says it is reviewing its Act to ensure peddlers of life threatening materials are jailed and not fined.

The Director General of SON, Malam Farouk Salim, said this on Thursday in Lagos during the destruction of materials seized by the organisation.

Salim said the peddlers are economic saboteurs that kill industries and people who innocently buy the products.

“In the last National Assembly, we went to them to review our act to make sure that peddlers of life threatening materials are jailed and not just fined.

“They have passed the law but unfortunately did not get the opportunity for the president to sign it into law.

“So, it is back in the National Assembly and hopefully very soon it will be with the president.

“I am sure the president will sign that amendment and those individuals selling threatening items will be jailed immediately they are caught,” he said.

The SON boss said that some of the products to be destroyed are by the orders of the court.

Salim said that the agency also seized some tyres, which were not fit for use while some that were were ne but were stuffed with other used ones.

“As a result, the tyres lost their integrity and are dangerous to the society, while the ones looking new are used tyres, which were pressed and polished to look new.

“The fakers of the motor oil lubricants intercepted in Calabar used popular products so our Nigerian lubricant manufacturers that are successful have to contain with individuals trying to copy their product.

“Nobody copies a product that is not successful; the only problem is the copying is a bad one.

“The product you are seeing behind does not belong to that popular company. It was being copied and they were taken to court, convicted and the court gave us the permission to confiscate the product and destroy them,” he said.

Salim pointed out that Nigerian cable industry are successful and good and they help the organisation to identify the fake ones.

He said that SON, sometimes, uses their intelligence to fish out the people because their activities were affecting the economy of the country.

“Due to the policy on local content, we need to make sure that our indigenous companies are protected.

“These cables are supposed to be copper but they are either iron or copper coated, when used in building, it gets hot and causes fire,” he said.

On the value of the products, the SON director general said that it run into billions of naira, adding that they would keep seizing the products to force the perpetrators to stop.

“To your eyes, these products don’t look nice but an unscrupulous person can take them, clean it up and send to the market and make billions of naira from it.

“The seized items are safe in this environment as the place is monitored by police and civil defence 24 hours,” he said.