The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has impounded
30,000 pieces of steels bars of different brands and sizes in 20 different
shops in Kwara.
The State’s Coordinator of SON, Mr Sunday Yashim, who led
the raid, said the steel bars did not meet standard specifications and
qualities.
Responding to complaints of the traders, Yashim said that
traders had a role to play in ensuring that markets are free of substandard
products.
“Whatever steel that you buy, you find out that each
steel bar has a code on it, we did that to enable us trace the manufacturers.
“But we have found ourselves in a situation, where after
correcting and guiding them on what to do; they still go ahead to produce steel
bars that did not meet the required standards.
“That is why we feel that it is necessary to find out
what is in the market, because the sellers themselves do not help matters.
“They buy these steel bars knowing that they are not of
good quality and they never bother to come to SON to complain,” Yashim said.
The coordinator said the impounded steel bars did not
meet the required specification and standard in terms of length, dimension and
even the mass per meter.
“We have come out now on surveillance activity and
surprisingly we found out that most of the steel bars being sold are not in
line with requirement of the NIS standards.
“That is why we
have asked them to hold on, to stop sale, we want to go back and find out from
the manufacturers, why they are feeding the markets with substandard steel
bars.
“When we have resolved that, then we know precisely what
to do, but we believe that the traders are aware that the bars are of poor
quality but they refuse to come and complain.
“They should be in a position to protect consumers from
such inferior products. They should not just be interested in money and profit
making,’’ he said.
Some of the traders who spoke anonymously with the News
Agency of Nigeria (NAN) said that they brought the steel bars directly from the
manufacturers.
They argued that it was not their fault that the steel
bars were found to be inferior to appropriate standards.
“We pay for these goods through the bank and we get our
goods delivered to us, we do not know if what we have been given is of less
quality.
“We should not be punished for what is clearly not our
fault; SON should go to the manufacturers of these products and monitor what
they produce daily, constant monitoring is what the manufacturers need.
“Another thing is the price regulation, the prices of
steel bars is irregular, the manufacturers increase price at any time, because
there is no price control,” the trader said.
The traders also urged government to look into the
activities of steel bar manufacturers in monitoring and price regulation.
0 comments: