The Nation Newspaper

Tag: SON

  • Dad, son, arraigned for ‘assaulting’ IE official

    A 50-year-old man, Samuel Abilagbo and his 20-year-old son, Moses, were yesterday arraigned at an Ikorodu Magistrates’ Court for allegedly assaulting an official of Ikeja Electric.

    The duo, who live at 2, Mount Sinai Street, Agbede, Ikorodu, pleaded not guilty to the two-count charge of breach of the peace and assault brought against them.

    Prosecuting Sergeant Mary Ajiteru told the court that the accused battered the official, Mr Ogbeke Harrison, while trying to disconnect the power supply to their house.

    “While the complainant wanted to disconnect electricity supply to their house, he was brutalised with stones and stick which left him with a permanent scar on his head.”

    The offence contravened Sections 168 (d) and 172 (d) of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015 (Revised).

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the sections stipulate three months and one year jail terms.

    Magistrate W. B. Balogun granted them N100, 000 bail with two sureties each in the like. The surties, he said, must be workers in reputable organisations.

    The sureties must also show evidence of tax payment to the Lagos State Government.

    Balogun adjourned the case till July 12.

  • Dad, son held over arms production

    •Rapist nabbed

    The police in Benue State have arrested three suspected firearms manufacturers.

    They include a father and his son.

    The suspects, Thomas Ode alias Tommy, Kingsley Abi and his father, Odah Abi, were nabbed at Oju in Oju Local Government.

    The Nation learnt that a G3 rifle, four G3 empty shells of ammunition, two expended cartridges, two cut-to-size iron barrels for manufacturing local guns and three wooden gun butts were recovered from them.

    Others include three locally-made baretta magazines, three skeletons of locally-made pistols, two cut-to-size double barrels for making local pistols, a toy gun, two iron boxes containing blacksmithing tools, two plastic bottles containing marijuana seeds and five sachets of Tramadol.

    Police Commissioner Fatai Owoseni said the suspects were caught during investigation of an abduction and a rape case.

    He alleged that one of the suspects abducted and defiled a 15-year-old girl on May 21.

    Owoseni said: “The case was reported to the police and during investigation, it was discovered that the suspects manufactured firearms. “Investigations have begun to arrest the people they supplied the firearms to. We will find out other things they have done.

    “The police appreciate the support of law-abiding people. We will continue to count on their partnership towards ensuring security of life and property.”

     

     

  • SON, CPC others seek regulatory framework for e-commerce

    The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Consumer Protection Council (CPC), Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), and others have pushed for a regulatory framework to further spur the growth of local e-commerce setor estimated to be worth $13 billion.

    The orgaisations stressed this need during a stakeholders’ forum organised by SON in Lagos. The Role of Standards and Quality Regulation in Electronic Commerce was the theme of the forum.

    With over 400, 000 orders placed daily and big time players including Konga, which recently merged operations with Yudala, Jumia, Gloo.ng, Dealdey, Kaymu, Wakanow, among others, the sector is a huge employer of labour.

    Speaking at the forum, the Director-General, SON, Osita Anthony Aboloma, said the promotion of awareness on standards and quality regulation in the e-commerce sector has become necessary as the drive for digitalised market places increased pressure on the need for standards.

    According to him, these require that all stakeholders reckon fully with the realities of the competitive and fast-paced global economy.

    Represented by the Director, Corporate Affairs, Dr. Paul Angya,  the SON chief said with the increasing volumes of consumer complaints being received on the quality of products sold online by the SON, CPC and other sister regulatory agencies, it has become imperative to have a robust regulatory framework in place for the sector.

    He said products such as mobile phones, electrical and electronic devices cannot be physically viewed and tested before purchase online, while the claims on what they can do have been found in many cases to be inaccurate or sometimes outrightly false.

    SON Director, Product Compliance Directorate (PCD), Tersoo Orngudwem, said ecommerce as an application of the internet technology was accelerating in its growth and reaching out to huge market. He said law was needed to set the standards in commerce, regulate social order, safeguard reasonable consumer expectation in cyberspace and impose punishment for anti-social behaviour.

    Orngudwem noted that standards are needed to prescribe the limits to permissible conduct which are to be applied according to the circumstances of each case.

    “Stringent security requirements must be in place to protect companies from threats like publishing attacks (credit card fraud), data errors or they risk jeopardising revenue and customer trust, due to the inability to guarantee safe credit card processing,” he said.

    According to him, technology continues to move forward at the speed of light and e-commerce is evolving rapidly along with it.

    He said: “Technology can provide relevant real-time information between retailer and consumer. Currently, the internet and its various e-commerce mutations are a very chaotic system. Standards will provide some structure to this chaos. It is expected that this structure will reduce uncertainty and variance in the system, thus boosting organisational and consumer confidence in the system.”

    Also speaking, the Director-General, CPC, Babatunde Irukera, said the e-commerce sector neede stronger regulations to stay afloat and service effectively.

    He said e-commerce operators should have a standalone customer unit, stressing that it would aid complaint resolution mechanism.

    According to him, this will facilitate full product disclosure; transparent and factural advertising and warranty information; timely delivery of claims, right to privacy of consumers, among others.

    He stressed the need to institutionalise consequence management system across the entire ecosysetem of the sub-sector to make the process more seamless.

  • Son allegedly kills 83-year-old father

    Enugu State Police Command has begun investigation into the alleged killing of a father by his son at Ojinato.

    Spokesman Ebere Amaraizu said in a statement in Enugu yesterday that the incident occurred on May 4.

    The statement said the suspect’s real name has not been established, but investigation is on.

    It said the deceased, Pa Nathaniel Chukwuemerie, 83, from Ogidi in Idemili North Local Government of Anambra State, was killed by his son, simply called ‘The Boy’.

    The statement said Chukwuemerie, who lived at Ojinato, “died when his son, identified as `The Boy’, smashed his father’s head with a pestle over a yet to be established issue.’’

    It said sympathisers took the victim to a nearby hospital where he was confirmed dead by a doctor.

    He said the body was deposited at Oji River General Hospital mortuary.

    “The suspect has been nabbed. According to information by a source, the suspect had been behaving abnormally, suggesting mental illness,’’ the statement added.

  • SON destroys substandard LPG cylinders

    The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has destroyed over 749 substandard liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cylinders in Katsina, the Katsina State capital.

    The agency warned dealers of fake and substandard LPG cylinders to desist or face the law.

    Its Director-General, Osita Aboloma, described the illicit trade as life-thrreatening.

    He said the withdrawal of the cylinders from circulation during mop up in Kaduna and Kano states, was in line with the SON Act No. 14 of 2015, which gives the organisation the powers to seize suspected substandard products for 90 days for quality verification without recourse to judicial intervention.

    Represented by the Regional Coordinator, Northwest Zone, Mr. Dauda Yakubu, the DG said the cylinders had been subjected to laboratory tests to confirm their conformity, stressing that they failed critical safety parameters

    “Many have expired, while some supposedly new ones were badly welded, thus posing great danger to lives and property,” he said.

    On why the cylinders were brought to Katsina for destruction, he said there was a mutual agreement with the owners of the Dana Steel Rolling Mill facilities to assist and recycle them for other uses to avoid environmental pollution.

    Aboloma advised those dealing in the LPG and accessories to abide  by the safety requirements of the Nigeria Industrial Standards (NIS).

    He said extended SON’s appreciation to Dana Steel management for making their facility available for the destruction. He called on other stakeholders to collaborate with the agency to improve lives through standards and quality assurance.

     

     

     

  • SON inaugurates panel on community sanitation

    Nigeria’s first National Mirror Committee and Technical Committee on ISO PC 305 and ISO PC 318 on sustainable non-sewer sanitation system and community-scale resource-oriented sanitation treatment system have been inaugurated in Lagos  by the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) and other critical stakeholders in environmental management.

    The ISO PC 305 was established by SON’s Technical Management Board resolution of May 2016 to provide a standard solution to the recurrent issue of a sustainable and affordable sanitation to alleviate the problem of open defecation. The ISO PC 318 is a new community-scale resource-oriented sanitation treatment system..

    At the event, SON’s Director-General Osita Aboloma, represented by Mrs. Chinyere Egwuonwu, noted that the panel would capitalise on its international experts and build on the information and expertise it would gather to develop the IWA 28:2018, a document specifying the requirements and test methods to ensure safety, performance and sustainability of community-scale, resource-oriented fecal sludge treatment units, that serve between 1,000 and 100,000 people.

    “It is a major step to help realise the potential of such technology and, ultimately, save lives. The IWA 28 fecal sludge treatment units will help to facilitate the commercialisation and expansion of such treatment units into the market, making them safer and more accessible to those who need them,” he said.

    Aboloma explained that the purpose of the standardisation was to enable the development of standards along the sanitation system designed to address basic sanitation needs and promote economic, social and environmental sustainability through strategies that may include minimising resource consumption and converting human waste to safe output.

    As part of its mandate, Aboloma said the national mirror committee would showcase the activities of the two ISO technical committees and establish Nigeria’s position on the ISO draft standards on sanitation systems and services through a consensus of input from stakeholders.

    He charged the panel to ensure that stakeholders contributed adequately to ensure that the standards reflected Nigeria’s position to facilitate its adoption as national standards and to provide the necessary confidence for engagements, urging them to interact with other people towards implementation of community sanitation standards.

    “This is an opportunity for us to have a say on the global community,” he added.

    The Director, Environmental Services, Lagos State Ministry of the Environment, Dr. Iyabo Philips, is the pioneer chairperson of the NMC.

    She assured of a robust deliberations, which he noted, would help the country address its environmental issues, especially open defecation.

    “We are grateful to SON for coming up with this programme at this time. In Lagos, we are putting together programmes against open defecation. Most of the diseases in town are caused by it.

    ‘’With this programme, a high percentage of water borne diseases will be eradicated and Nigeria will get the best as these standards would be adopted as national standards,” Philip said.

  • SON embarks on massive evacuation of uncertified lubricants

    Fully aware of the critical role of lubricating products in the nation’s quest towards rapid industrialization as well as ensure that adulteration of lubricants are stamped out, the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has embarked on a nationwide mop up of substandard lubricants, describing the move as an imperative in safeguarding the lives of unsuspecting consumers in the country, while also boosting Nigeria’s industrialization drive.

    According to the agency, the impact of fake and counterfeited lubricants on the economy poses threat to nation’s manufacturing industry, maintaining that  the use of lubricants touches on all vehicles, industrial machines of various types, hydraulic systems, electric transformers and other things.

    ”It is obvious that most of our daily activities depend directly or indirectly on use of lubricants, and it is, therefore, the massive evacuation of substandard lubricants cannot be over flogged,” SON said.

    The Director General, SON, Osita Aboloma, at an enforcement exercise to raid different markets and warehouses in Lagos in search of adulterated and uncertified lubricants, explained that the agency has been reinvigorated courtesy of its new SON Act 2015 to remove all non-complying products from the nation’s market, saying that its new rigour was also aimed at improving the capacity utilization of Nigeria’s manufacturing industry.

    Aboloma, who was represented by the Director, Compliance, SON, Bede Obayi, also disclosed that the special raid was targeted at markets and warehouses where suspected substandard products were stocked or sold.

    In his words, “The special raid is in accordance with our mandate that all non-complying products must be removed from the markets of this country and this special raid is targeted at anywhere we suspect that there is substandard products and this is why we embark on the raiding of warehouses and markets where suspected substandard lubricants are sold to unsuspecting consumers in this country, we also seize cables and textile materials because we want to make this country a place where indigenous manufacturers can come and produce.”

    He added: “We do not want these unscrupulous importers to flood this country with substandard products. We want the capacity utilization of Nigerian companies to improve so as to employ the teeming unemployed Nigerian youths and it can only be so when these substandard products are removed from the nation’s market. This is why we have stopped at nothing in getting everything that is suspected to be substandard out of the markets.”

  • MD’s trial for ‘cloning SON logo’ adjourned till May 7

    The Federal High Court in Lagos on Wednesday adjourned till May 7, the trial of the Managing Director of Agastorm Limited, Nonso Udoye, for allegedly cloning the production and registration logo of the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON).

    Justice Saliu Saidu upheld Udoye’s application for adjournment following his change of counsel.

    Udoye, of 36, Ayara Street, Surulere, Lagos, was arraigned by the SON on February 25 on a 15-count charge of forgery and counterfeiting.

    He pleaded not guilty to the charges and was remanded in prison following his inability to perfect his bail terms.

    At the commencement of proceedings on Wednesday, his counsel, Emmanuel Okoroafor, told the court that he just took over the matter and needed time to study the Proof of Evidence.

    He sought an adjournment to enable him familiarise himself with the case.

    But prosecution counsel, Amaka Allen-Ngbale, opposed him.

    She said: “The matter is for trial. We have our witness in court who is a police officer. We are ready to go on.”

    In a Bench Ruling, Justice Saidu upheld the defence counsel’s prayer and adjourned till May 7 for trial.

     

  • NAGAFF urges FG over SON return to seaport

    The National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) has urged the Federal Government to ensure the return of standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) to the seaport.

    The group wants SON back instead of the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administrative Control (NAFDAC) that was recently returned to the port.

    Dr. Boniface Aniebonam reacting to the spate of substandard items imported into the country told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Lagos that SON should be actively involved in the import inspection of goods and quality assessment at the ports.

    Aniebonam, who spoke on behalf of the association, said the return of SON will help to identify substandard products in the market that are injurious to the public.

    He said that the importance of this exercise is enormous, considering the economic, health and safety implications of the public.

    “On weather SON should return to the port? I would say the presence of SON in the port is needed more than the presence of NAFDAC that are presently dominant at the port.

    “So, we are calling on the Federal Government to ensure that SON returns to the port; as we are aware of the harm substandard goods cause to the economy and safety of the people.

    “Our stand is that SON should be dominant in the port, while other agencies like NAFDAC should be called upon whenever their services are needed” he said.

    NAN reports that the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) had asked the officials of SON to vacate the seaports or risk being arrested.

    The NPA directive said was in line with a new order issued to the agency by the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC).

    Aniebonam, however charged the Nigerian Shippers Council to prosecute shipping companies who refused to comply with the directive on return of container deposit to importers.

    NAN

  • Septuagenarian, son ‘suffocate tenant to death’

    A septuagenarian, Augustine Anumudu, and his son, Okey, were yesterday brought before an Ebute-Meta Chief Magistrates’ Court for allegedly suffocating a tenant to death.

    The duo were brought before the court on a two-count charge of conspiracy and murder.

    The charge was read to them but their plea was not taken.

    Inspector Julius Babatope told the court that the offences were committed on April 2, by 2p.m. at 3B, Esomo Street, off Toyin Street, Ikeja, Lagos mainland.

    He said father and son conspired to suffocate Anthony Obuse to death for ‘illegal occupation of his house’.

    Babatope said the offences contravened Sections 223 and 233 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.

    Chief Magistrate O.A. Adegite granted the accused N100,000 bail with two sureties in the like sum.

    She said the two accused should remain in prison pending perfection of their bail conditions.

    Adegite ordered that the case file be duplicated and sent to the State Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for advice and adjourned the case till May 14.