The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has identified lack of sincerity and integrity of importers and clearing agents as the major reasons why his agency intercepts containers on the highways for further checks.
Speaking at a public forum in Lagos on Wednesday, SON Director General, Joseph Odumodu said the agency said before now, his operatives visited and sealed warehouses where fake imported sub-standard goods are suspected to be kept, but such actions have not been producing the desired results.
Odumodu also complained that over 95 percent of sub-standard products presently in the country found their way in through the seaport and other entry points.
“Two years ago, we use to go to some of these warehouses but we later realised that some of these warehouses never exist.
“For instance, when you seal off a warehouse you suspect of having sub-standard products, you realise that the following day you come there, it would have been relocated so, that was why we found another way round it.
“Anyone that is not happy about what we are doing should stop bringing sub-standard goods into the country.
“From 2015, what we will be doing is to arrest everyone that is related to a container that brings in substandard goods into the country because I realised that it is when people suffer personal inconvenience that they will begin to do the right thing,” he said.
Odumodu said the importation of sub-standard goods into the country has led to avoidable loss of lives and property.
He said, “We appeal to you, we all have to be in this crusade together because we are all living dangerously in this country.”
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