Nigerian importers under the aegis of Importers Association of Nigeria (IMAN) Special Taskforce have accused some officials of the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) of aiding the importation of substandard products into the country.
The group, which works in collaboration with some officers of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), stated that the sleaze is perpetuated via concealment of some products under the guise of importing good in completely knocked down (CKD) condition.
According to the group, IMAN’s Taskforce team and its Police Attaché through their intelligence had visited an Indian company, Qada and Qlink on allegations of improper importations.
Speaking with newsmen in Lagos, IMAN Special Taskforce National Coordinator, Obinna Micheal stated that his team had received several allegations of fraudulent activities including concealments, under payment and economic sabotage being carried out by these companies and the companies refused IMAN and police officers access to their warehouses.
“On visiting their warehouses, the police demanded for their import clearance papers, but they were unable to provide it, as such some of their products were taken as exhibit samples, pending when they produce their import documents to clear from the police.”
“In a swift turn of event, the company officials, rather than provide evidence of their import documentations stormed the IMAN taskforce office with four officials of SON, who claimed that the company is duly cleared by them,” the IMAN Coordinator said.
He stated that the SON officials which visited IMAN were led by one Engr. Ikechukwu Anyanwu as they claimed that the Director General of SON sent them to clear the two companies of any illegalities as they were genuine importers.
“The SON officials said the companies are compliant and properly cleared by SON and Nigeria Customs Service (NCS). The SON team also said that their office is located at Amuwo Odofin, Lagos.”
The IMAN team also said it had received unconfirmed reports that owner of Qada pays N300,000 every month to the SON team led by Engr. Ikechukwu.
Efforts by our correspondent to confirm the incident and allegations were futile until presstime as Engr. Ikechukwu Anyanwu and other SON officials couldn’t pick their calls.
