Standards Organisation of Nigeria Management has denied allegation that its Director General, Mallam Farouk Salim accused Customs of flooding the Nigeria market with substandard goods following the destruction of some substandard products at its facility in Lagos. SON in a statement said “The Management of SON wish to state unequivocally that it holds the Nigerian Customs Service leadership and officers in very high esteem and have been working in very close collaboration with the service all over the Nation to substantially reduce the importation and distribution of substandard products in Nigerian markets.
“These were publicly expressed by the Director General, Mallam Farouk Salim recently in Lagos and Port Harcourt at interactive forums with maritime stakeholders in the two cities. The challenge of importation, smuggling, manufacture and distribution of substandard products is hydra headed involving some unpatriotic Nigerians and their foreign collaborators and requires the continuous cooperation of all regulatory and security agencies, patriots and quality vanguards. The Management of SON wish to therefore correct the erroneous impression that it attributes the influx of substandard products into Nigeria to the Nigerian Customs Service. Deliberate efforts were made by SON to request the publishers of the erroneous stories to withdraw them from circulation”.