In an operation against suppliers of counterfeit rolling bearings, over 2.5 tons of counterfeit products were seized by the Nigerian law enforcement agency recently in trade fair complex Aspanda.
This is as SKF Swedish Rolling bearing company disclosed during seizure of the products that millions of lives are being endangered as a result of these counterfeit bearings.
Tonason Evergreen LTD also known as Bearing kings LTD located at the market was also locked up with the owner on the run. But with the help of the court order, the police obtained force entry into one of the smaller outlet, Bearing Embassy located in Kayus Bearing Plaza, where over 7,000 counterfeit products were also seized.
According to Tina Astrom, a SKF representative, the company has not only been supplying sub-standard counterfeit parts to Nigerian users but has also instilled their trademark on these counterfeits products and selling at the same price with original products.
“I would expect that Nigerian authorities would act firmer as these counterfeits parts are bound to create problems for the Nigerian society and its citizens due to the fact that bearings are used in many critical machinery such as elevators, cars, and airplanes and also in important public utility companies such as electricity plants and water supplies. Failures of which could lead to expensive downtime, loss of jobs, accident, and loss of lives,” Astrom said.
He noted that the company counterfeiting the SKF products has many outlets in Nigeria of which they supply to other resellers, direct users and also export to other African countries.
And as such, SKF has urged all bearing users to use safe suppliers and black list any supplier that they have received counterfeit products from.
“To avoid being victims of this fraud and prevent serious accidents, bearing users are recommended to use the app ‘SKF Authenticate’ which is available on the goggle play app. The app is used to take pictures of the product and SKF specialist will respond within 24/7 basis,” he added.
