Court orders six trucks loaded with fake kiwi Polish, worth N80m burnt in Anambra

The Presiding Justice, Justice IB Gafai of the Federal High Court Awka, the Anambra State Capital, on Thursday ordered the burning of six trucks loaded with fake kiwi Polish worth 80million.

Six truckloads of fake Kiwi polish were on Thursday destroyed by burning in Awka, the Anambra State capital, following an order of a Federal High Court in the state presided over by Justice IB Gafai.

According to Justice Gafai, the court had granted Anton Piller order to ASCO Investment Limited, Nigerian representative of SC Johnson, makers of Kiwi polish to search premises and markets to seize fake kiwi products without prior warning.

As a result, about 500,000 tins of Kiwi polish were confiscated in various markets in Onitsha and environs.

Addressing newsmen at Agu Awka where the fake products were burnt to aches, counsel for ASCO Investment, Tagbo Anieto, said the burnt products were worth of N80m.

He noted that “When the court granted ASCO Investment the Anton Piller order, the company went into markets in Onitsha, especially the Main Market, and confiscated fake Kiwi products. About 500,000 tins of fake Kiwi polish worth about N80m were destroyed.

” We approached the court again and the court this time ordered that the fake products be destroyed by burning; that is why we are here in the company of the police, civil defence, journalists, court bailiffs to execute the order of the court.

Anieto said the criminal aspect of the matter was still pending against the suspects, who he said comprised a company and several petty traders.

The destruction was supervised by the police and some officials of SC Johnson, manufacturers of Kiwi polish.

Also speaking the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of ASCO Investment, Chief Sam Anyanwutaku decried the rate of fake products being peddled in Nigerian markets.

He commended the Federal Government for setting up regulatory bodies such as the Standards Organisation of Nigeria and
the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, saying without such organs the situation would have been worse.

He added that:  “The public execution of the court judgment is to make sure that consumers buy only original products while warning to those who deal in fake products to desist from doing so.”

While calling other manufacturers to join in the fight against fakers of their products, Anyanwutaku said in the next two years, the system would be sanitised.