The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has mopped up suspected sub-standard and counterfeit electric cables on sale in Aba, the commercial hub of Abia State.
The exercise was in response to the director-general of the organisation for the confiscation of substandard and counterfeit electric cables that endanger human lives, said Oluyomi Lad-Alabi, Abia State coordinator of SON.
Lad-Alabi, who led an enforcement team to Hospital Road cable market, explained that the management had resolved that Nigerians should start having value for their money and use only products that are safe and reliable.
He explained that some of the products mopped up were substandard, fakes and counterfeits of some known brands, with coils so tiny in diameter and did not meet Nigerian standards.
According to him, one of the ways to identify a substandard cable is when the insulator is so big while the coil inside is less than 1mm, “then you know that something is wrong and the coil cannot conduct electricity.”
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He said that some of the importers or marketers mislead patrons by branding an imported substandard cable with a registered popular name, thereby deceiving people, who may think that they are buying the original product.
“It is suggestive that something is wrong, because they would use a carton of a brand that has a name in the market, but actually what you have inside is different.
“Also, some of the cables have no conductors in them, so those ones are quite misleading and consequently we evacuated all of such products we found in the market,” he said.
He said that samples of products suspected to be counterfeit would be sent to the agency’s laboratory for analysis and if confirmed bad, would be destroyed.
He added that the exercise would be sustained until substandard cables were eradicate from the Nigerian market, and pleaded with dealers of electric cables to sell only certified products with NIS.
“These things bother on self-regulation. Like when I had a conversation with some of them, I pleaded with them not to sell what they will not use, because that is one of the best ways to regulate substandard products.”
He pleaded with the public to report to SON traders dealing in suspected substandard electrical cables, arguing that such people were known in their neighbourhoods.
“All you need to do is to let us know, so that we can stop where they are getting the feed from, because if we stop the feed, then we can break the chain”, Lad-Alabi stated.
The SON is the statutory agency responsible for upholding and enforcing Nigeria’s national industrial standards.
GODFREY OFURUM, Aba
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