SON Seizes Fake Phones Worth N150m In Kano
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The Standards organization of Nigeria (SON) has evacuated over 1000 cartons of phones, worth N150 million and arrested a Chinese woman, the alleged owner of the fake phone warehouse, Yi Fang Communication, located at Gumel road, Bumpa, Kano state.
A statement issued by the State Head of Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON), Yahaya Bukar, revealed that the agency’s enforcement team carried out the clampdown on the firm following a tip off.
Bukar said the action was necessitated by the discovery that the alleged owner has been involved in the importation of substandard brands of phones into country.
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He said the SON team first stormed the warehouse for enforcement purpose and evacuated products worth over N150 million before arresting the woman.
He said, “During the first visit, a total of 1003 cartons of Tecno and Geonee substandard phones were evacuated.”
He explained that the phones after being tested, failed the various basic parameters.
“The phones are not registered or certified by SON. There is no required import documents on the product that can be retrieved from the importer by name, Xiulin popularly called “Sky” in Nigeria,
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“Our investigation revealed that the importation of products into Nigeria requires the possession of SON”s conformity assessment programme (SONCAP) certificate while locally made products are permissible with the agency’s mandatory conformity assessment programme (MANCAP),
“The two firms –Yi Fangk communications Limited would be prosecuted for importation of substandard products as well as unauthorized use of NIS logo. The confiscated phones would be destroyed after further laboratory analysis to confirm that they are fake and unsafe for use”, Bukar said.
Bukar further stated that the Chinese Lady was eventually arrested by the police and taken for further interrogation.
