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SON reacts as petroleum marketers fault approach to enforcing standards

By Obinna Nwaoku, Port Harcourt
22 June 2022   |   4:00 am
Petroleum marketers in Rivers State have raised concerns about the professionalism of the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON).

Petroleum marketers in Rivers State have raised concerns about the professionalism of the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON).

Rivers State Chairman of Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria, Francis Dimkpa, who spoke on the role of the agency in eradicating substandard products from the market, yesterday, noted that SON ought to monitor the standard of products at the point of manufacturing and entry into the country.

He spoke in an interview with The Guardian.

“We are more concerned about professionalism of Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON). They should actually focus on manufacturers and importers. If they want to talk about standards, they should monitor standards from the point of entry and the point of manufacturing.

“There is no need going to harass people or intimidate people in and out of business premises without first stopping the product from entering the country,” he said. 

Similarly, a manufacturer, who gave his name as Friday Okoro, blamed agencies working with SON in various countries for failing to thoroughly assess standard of goods before moving them into the country.

“SON has representatives in countries like China and Japan. Before products leave these countries, those representatives are supposed to assess them but how come the products come into Nigeria and we discover that the products are substandard. It simply means agents abroad are not doing their work.”

But SON, in its reaction, said it only has to trace already distributed products because it does not operate at Nigerian borders, which would have given it access to imported goods before distribution.

Rivers State coordinator of SON, Samuel Ayuba, who gave the explanation while reacting to claims by petroleum marketers, however, said all imported products were expected to have gone through the SON CAP scale issued by International Accredited firms, which the agency naturally should rely on.

He said: “The policies state that any product from anywhere in the world to Nigeria must undergo the SON Cap scale and the products are certificated before they are put into container and shipped into the country. So we are supposed to have confidence in the SON cap certificate that is issued. But we discovered that people get these certificates and bring in bad products so it becomes necessary that we have to hunt these products and because we are not on the borders, we had to go to the markets.”

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