Trade ministry bemoans deaths caused by fake products

The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investments, Niyi Adebayo, has decried the death of many Nigerians from substandard and adulterated products in the country.

Adebayo urged the Standards Organisation of Nigeria to step up efforts to rid the society of such through more efficiency and “exercising its powers to arrest, confiscate and prosecute offenders, who violate the laws relating to standards of goods and services in Nigeria.”

The minister, who spoke during the inauguration of the new Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State office and laboratory of SON, described the event as “another milestone in the quest to build a society free from substandard products being imported or manufactured locally here in Ekiti or across the country.”

He said, “Before now, you all would agree with me that hundreds of thousands of Nigerian lives had been cut short as a result of substandard and life-threatening products like steel and roofing sheets, adulterated lubricants and explosions from continuous use of old and expired liquefied petroleum gas, fires from substandard electric cables and road accidents from expired and re-threaded vehicular tyres.

“With such situations as expressed above, the commissioning of this building could not have come at a better time than now as this will not only expand the activities of SON from the state capital to all local governments. It will also reduce the cost and turnaround time for test results as against transporting product samples to SON laboratory facilities in Lagos or Enugu.”

The Ekiti State Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, called on both local and international industrialists to avail themselves of the new facilities and invest in the state towards much-needed industrialisation and economic viability.Fayemi said, “As a responsible government, I wish to reiterate our preparedness to partner with the organisation in achieving its given mandate of improving the lives of Ekiti state residents through maintenance of standards.”

SON Director General, Farouk Salim, assured Nigerians that he would carry out the mandate of ensuring standard products and services and urged the public to patronise the agency for a safer and healthy society.