The Standards Organisation of Nigeria on Tuesday destroyed substandard mobile phone accessories worth over N480 million, it seized from some importers.

The seized items were destroyed at the LAWMA dump site along Lekki-Epe Road, Lagos.

Speaking with journalists at the site, the director, Compliance and Directorate, SON, Obiora Manafa, said, the fake phone accessories were traced to a warehouse  in Ojo-Alaba, Lagos last year December and were seized by the operatives of SON, adding that the importers were still on the run but his men were on their trail.

He said the mobile phone accessories were fake versions of popular brands such as Samsung, Infinix, Huawei among others.

He said, “We are here today to destroy some products that are dangerous and we do not want them to enter the markets. They are mobile accessories and they are fake of the major brands such as Samsung, Techno, Infinix, Huawei and lots of others. We seized these items late last year.  He said SON had presented the items to original brand owners but they denied ownership.

We seized them from a commercial warehouse, but the products are not owned by the owner of the warehouse. We subjected these products to laboratory analysis and they all failed.”

He said the importers had contravened the law by faking known brands, which he noted would have negative impact on the investment of the original brand owners.

He added, “They have offended the law by faking these products. When we took these products to the original brand owners, they denied ownership which means that they are fake brands. We are also looking at these accessories from two aspects which include the economic and safety point of views. The economic point is that the accessories you buy will not last than more than a week and this to us does not make economic sense because you do not get value for the money spent.

 “The safety aspect is that these accessories pose serious threat to the users. When we tested the insulation parameters of these products, they all failed woefully.

“The International Electrotechnical Commission standards of power states that the minimum power you get from these products should be 1000 mega ohms, but the values we got after testing gave only 60 mega ohms. So it is as bad as using naked wires because it is not preventing any flow of current, which expose the users to electric shocks and can even burn houses,”

Manafa said this would serve as a deterrent to other scrupulous importers, adding that SON was committed to protecting the lives and properties of Nigerians.

The Head, Enforcement, Nigeria Copyright Commission, Lagos Office, Charles Amudipe, commended SON for its fight against substandard goods in the country, noting that the counterfeited products were not fit for use by end users.