Ostia Aboloma, Director-General, SON revealed this to the newsmen during the inspection exercise at the Lagos port.
Aboloma who was represented by the agency’s Director, Compliance, Bede Obayi, noted that the move was in line with its measures to safeguard lives and properties across the country and maintain a zero tolerance for substandard goods.
He also assured Nigerians that the agency would not relent in its bid in ensuring that only goods that meet the minimum requirements of the Nigeria Industrial Standards (NIS) would be allowed to thrive in Nigerian markets.
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He said: “We intercepted these two 40-feet containers containing fake electricity bulbs released from the ports. We have tested them in our laboratory and the result we got shows that these bulbs are far below the requirement of the standards and we cannot allow that.
“The packs of these bulbs indicate that each bulb is 105 watts, but when tested, it was not up to 50 watts and this is not even up to 50 per cent of the rated capacity. The importer will sell to the public as 105 watts, short-changing the unsuspecting Nigerian end-users.
“If you know you have the capacity to do 50 watts, why not indicate 50 watts instead of making the consumers to pay twice the amount of the price. This is not acceptable and we will not allow this to continue. We must destroy these bulbs. We have tested them and they failed the requirements of the standards”, he said.
He also called on importers to desist from illicit and unscrupulous trade activities, maintaining that the agency will double its effort in combating substandard goods until it gets to the barest minimum.