The Chairman of the House of Representatives
Committee on Industry, Hon. Dolapo Badru, has declared the directive that sent
out the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) from the Nigerian sea and air
ports as an act of illegality that must be reversed.
Badru made this declaration during an oversight
function to SON laboratory in Ogba, Lagos State.
He argued that there was an enabling law that
mandated SON to be present at the ports to check the influx of sub-standard
products into Nigeria, adding that only a court of appropriate jurisdiction could
say whether the law is right or not.
According to him, “No single person or institution
can tell SON not to obey that law. It is only a court of competent jurisdiction
that can do so. Therefore, a pronouncement cannot stop an agency charged with
the responsibility of saving the lives of Nigerians from carrying out its
statutory mandate. We will not encourage the import of sub-standard tires,
drugs and other products that have been killing Nigerians daily by removing SON
from the ports when there is a law that stated that it must be there to control
the influx of these sub-standard products. This is a problem, and we must
address it because we have had enough deaths.”
He also frowned at the situation whereby SON is
invited occasionally at the ports to confirm the standards of some products
coming into Nigeria.
The lawmaker asked: “How can SON be invited at
random? You cannot invite people only when it pleases you, probably when the
‘negotiation’ is not right, then you call on SON to probably come and catch
‘your thief.’ That is how all these sub-standard products get to the streets
and get people maimed or killed. Where did they pass through? Someone paid duty
on them to bring them in. So who is fooling who?”
Badru also said his committee would sustain the
agitation for the return of SON to the ports no matter what and how long it
would take.
He declared that “if we need to change any law, we
will do it just to make sure that we get the best. If it will also take a
hearing to get this done, we are ready and will do it. But I do not think that
it will get to that stage. But if it gets to that stage, we have to summon some
people to explain why it should be so.
“The SON is doing a lot, and needs that everyone’s cooperation.
So it needs to intensify its sensitisation campaign with the public which is
the end user of these products.
He emphasised that the absence of SON at the ports,
which was not due to its own volition but because they were not allowed to do
their job, was the main reason sub-standard products are being dumped on
Nigerians.
Meanwhile, the Director-General of SON, Mr. Osita
Aboloma, has said the organisation would continue to put in its best to
safeguard the lives of Nigerians through quality assurance and standards.
Aboloma said SON needed an enabling environment for
effective service delivery do more.
“We want an enabling environment to do our work,
and then hold us responsible. We need to be at the ports to nip this menace in
the bud. That is my position,” he said.
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