SON seizes N50m substandard building materials

Director-General, Standards Organisation of Nigeria, Dr. Joseph Odumodu

The Standards Organisation of Nigeria on Thursday raided the building materials market located in Dei-Dei, Abuja.

The raid, which was carried out by a team led by the Regional Coordinator, North Central, SON, Mr. Nelson Adebiyi, saw the agency confiscating iron reinforcement for building houses worth N50m.

The agency took away 90 pieces of steel for further investigation, while the remaining was withheld.

Adebiyi said the exercise was to enable the agency rid the Nigerian markets of fake and substandard products.

“The enforcement was based on survey carried out earlier in the market by SON, which revealed that there are some substandard iron rods being sold by traders, which we need to evacuate from the market,” he said.

The SON coordinator said the agency had noted all the complaints of traders and it would address some of the issues raised by them adequately with a view to riding the market of substandard goods.

He said the target of the agency was to reduce substandard products in the market by 80 per cent, adding that substandard products in the country currently stood at 40 per cent in the market.

But some of the traders bemoaned the action of SON, stating that rather than seizing their products, the agency should have gone to the factories where the rods were being produced.

The Chairman, Building Materials Dealers Association, Dei-Dei Market, Mr .Anthony Chukwuneke, for instance said, “If there was the prevalence of substandard products in the markets as the officials had alleged, then SON should be an accomplice as it is expected to have representatives in each of the factories to enforce standards.”

Meanwhile, the Consumer Protection Council has promised to speedy address consumers’ complaints through negotiation, mediation and conciliation.

The Director-General, CPC, Mrs. Dupe Atoki, stated this on Thursday at a sensitisation campaign rally held in Abuja.

She said the council would, henceforth, get tough on the proliferation of substandard products in the Nigerian market.

“On a more serious note, henceforth, any market that has proliferation of substandard or fake products, the council will hold the market executives responsible. Any problem with the consumer that cannot be resolved by the market executives, such should immediately be made know to the council for necessary action,” she added.

PUNCH