The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed for second reading, a bill to repeal the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) Act, 2015 and enact the SON Act, 2023 to provide additional functions for the organisation, create new offences and increase penalties for offences relating to standardisation.
Sponsored by Julius Ihonvbere (APC, Edo) the bill proposed criminalisation of the production, importation, distribution, dealing in substandard life-endangering products and impose a jail term of five years without an option of fine on persons convicted.
It seeks to mandate SON to publish annually, products deemed as life-endangering, and proposes a 50% increment across board for all fines under the old act to align with current economic realities.
In a lead debate on the bill Ihonvbere lamented that some sections in the previous Act affect the rights of people such as the reduction in the duration for which SON can seize and detain hazardous goods without an order of Court from 90 days to 45 days.
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The lawmaker also said the power granted to the organisation under the old Act to destroy hazardous goods without an order of Court has been expunged.
He said: “Some of these challenges range from inadequate penalties for standards-related offences to create sufficient deterrence for offenders, to limited resources for the funding of the ever-increasing cost of standards development and conformity assessment activities.
“The instant proposition for the repeal of the SON ACT NO.14 of 2015 is necessitated by the need to reposition the Standards Organisation of Nigeria to attain its full potential in areas of standardisation and quality control;
“SON being the National Standards Body. The proposed amendments will checkmate the threats posed to the national economy by the importation and manufacturing of substandard products that lead to avoidable deaths and monumental economic losses in the Country.
“The journey of quality, as often said is without end. An analysis of the trend amongst substandard products peddlers is that the imposition of fines no matter how steep, barely acts as a deterrence to them.
“The idea of a mandatory custodial sentence for certain offences especially those relative to life-endangering products is the most effective tool to deter likely offenders.”
