14th October, 2011
The Consumer Protection Council (CPC), on Thursday confiscated substandard cables at the Mararaba Building Material Market, near the FCT.
Mrs Boladale Adeyinka, the Chief Surveillance and Enforcement Officer, who led the team, said CPC was ready to eliminate substandard goods from the markets.
According to her, the council decided to carry out the exercise due to complaints by consumers that their properties were always destroyed by fire as a result of fake electric cables.
She stressed that it was not going to be “business as usual”, adding, “consumers must not wait for their houses to be burnt before they complain of fake cables”.
“We have carried out surveillance on these shops for about a month as our officers have been pretending to be buyers of the cables,’’ she said.
According to her, the mandate of the Consumer Protection Council is to remove hazardous products from the markets. So when fake goods get to the market, Consumer Protection Council comes on board.
She said it was the duty of those at the border areas to ensure that prohibited and fake goods were not allowed into the country.
“These dealers are the target because they receive fake goods. We asked them to provide the addresses of where they bought the fake goods but they declined,” she added.
In his reaction, Mr Victor Cheta, Chairman, Building Material Association, said consumers preferred to buy fake goods because they were cheap.
According to him, those who sell original goods are not patronised.
“I have never supported selling of fake goods but when consumers demand for the fake goods instead of the original, what do you want the dealers to do?” he asked.
Also, Mr Febian Okafor, the Treasurer of the association, said agencies of government should be proactive to prevent fake goods from entering the country.
He stressed that with the porous borders, fake goods were usually imported into the country thereby rendering the original products useless.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that more than five shops were raided in the market and substandard cables confiscated.