Olakiitan Victor in Ado Ekiti
The Standards Organisation of Nigeria, (SON), has raised the alarm over the influx of substandard cables and wires in the nation’s market.
The Head of Ekiti state office of the agency, Mrs. Serah Idowu, said in a statement in Ado Ekiti, that such fake cables are now common in most markets, thereby raising fears of possible fire outbreaks in homes and offices if not curtailed.
She said the alarm had become necessary in view of the threats such fake products posed to lives and property of unsuspecting members of the public.
According to her, out of 24 companies whose electrical products were tested and examined by the Laboratory and Compliance Unit of the agency in Ekiti State, only one of them scaled through.
She threatened to make public, list of the erring 23 companies if they failed to withdraw all their electrical items from the market and stop further production of such substandard products.
The SON boss disclosed that a meeting had already been scheduled with those behind the companies and their distributors where they hope to receive the last warning, as well as obtain undertakings from them not to further put the lives of Nigerians at risk.
She warned that after the meeting, wares of recalcitrant ones would be confiscated henceforth by the agency while their owners would be made to pay a minimum of N1m cost of destruction to the Treasury Single Account (TSA) Compliance Account of the agency.
Idowu disclosed that SON was working out modalities that would make the distribution of certain category of industrial and household appliances such as gas cylinders and fire extinguishers, the exclusive preserve of the various state Fire Services.
She expressed worry that most of the outlets where such high-tension electrical items are sold do not have the required safety precautions, while many of those that trade in them do not have any formal training in safety matters like those who work in Fire Services.
