The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) said on Monday it sealed 20 shops at the Building Materials International Market, Ogidi and Bridgehead area, Onitsha, in Anambra.
Mr Albert Wilberforce, Anambra Coordinator of SON, told newsroom in Awka that the shops were mainly dealing in zinc and aluminium roofing sheets that fell short of international standards.
The closure of the shops came few days after the Director-General of SON, Dr Joseph Odumodu, held an interactive session with building materials, electrical, electronics and tyre traders in the markets.
“Some goods in all the shops we have locked up fell below the standards we are enforcing.’’
He said that a lot of other products were fake versions of originals that had been certified by SON, adding that they would be confiscated and destroyed.
He said SON would prosecute those arrested for faking and adulterating products and follow up to tackle the manufacturers, both local and foreign.
“The people that we have caught with these products are the people who will tell us who their manufacturers and importers are,” Wilberforce said.
He warned the shop owners and market leaders against tampering with shops that had been sealed because that would lead to further offences.
Some of the traders expressed surprise that SON had come raiding their shops only a day after they held a “friendship meeting” with the director-general. (NAN)
