SON raids market for substandard building materials

Sequel to the incessant collapse of buildings all over the country, caused by the use of substandard building materials, the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has embarked upon picketing markets to get rid of substandard products in the markets.

Maka Ndigbo confirmed that officials of SON raided iron rod sales points at the Owerri Building Materials Market over substandard iron rods.

During the operation which lasted several hours, it was discovered that the market was flooded with substandard iron rods. The SON officials went ahead and took samples of iron rods for tests.

The Regional Coordinator, South East, SON, Mr Charles Emeka Nwagbara, said that the raid was a Federal Government’s directive to rid the market of substandard iron rods.

According to him, the exercise, which was taking place simultaneously all over the 36 states and Abuja, was to create awareness and sensitise the people so that they would be careful in buying iron rods.

The coordinator also stated that the raid was an enforcement to reduce substandard rods in the markets.

He, however, blamed the traders for the presence of substandard products in the market as they were not forced to buy the products.

The Imo State Director of SON pointed out that the samples taken would be subjected to chemical tests and if found to be substandard,  SON would then go for the manufacturers and the importers.

The President of the Owerri Building Materials Traders’ Association, Mr Chidi Ezeji, lauded the officials of SON for embarking upon the exercise. He said that the market was government friendly, but regretted that the traders had always been the losers of such government operations.

Mr Ezeji pointed out that the iron rod traders bought whatever was available at any time. He also disclosed that the manufacturers of iron rods dictated the quality of products they sold to the traders. He called on the Federal Government to ensure that there was uniform standard of products by the manufacturers so that traders would not have any need to buy substandard goods.