Members of the House of Representatives at the plenary, has passed through second reading, a Bill which seeks to repeal the Standards Organisation of Nigeria Act, No.14 of 2015 and enact the SON Act, 2023 for the purpose of providing additional functions for the organisation, creating new offences and increasing penalties for offences relating to standardisation.
Leading the debate on the Bill for the repeal of SON act, the sponsor, Hon. Julius Ihonvbere, said the key amendment is to criminalize the production, importation, distribution dealing in substandard life-endangering products and impose a custodial sentence of 5 years without an option of fine on persons convicted.
He also said the bill seeks to mandate the Organisation to publish annually, products deemed as life-endangering, and also proposes a 50% increment across board for all fines under the old act to align with current economic realities. The fines under the bill are set in the minimum to allow for flexibility.
The lawmaker lamented that some sections in the previous act affect the rights of people such as the reduction in the duration for which the Organisation can seize and detain hazardous goods without an order of Court from 90 days to 45 days.
Another, he said is the power granted to the Organisation under the old Act to destroy hazardous goods without an order of Court has been expunged.
Ihonvbere said, “Some of these challenges range from inadequate penalties for standards-related offences to create sufficient deterrence for offenders, to limited resources for the funding of the ever-increasing cost of standards development and conformity assessment activities. The instant proposition for the repeal of the SON ACT NO.14 of 2015 is necessitated by the need to reposition the Standards Organisation of Nigeria to attain its full potential in areas of standardisation and quality control;
“SON being the National Standards Body. The proposed amendments will checkmate the threats posed to the national economy by the importation and manufacturing of substandard products that lead to avoidable deaths and monumental economic losses in the Country. The journey of quality, as often said is without end. An analysis of the trend amongst substandard products peddlers is that the imposition of fines no matter how steep, barely acts as a deterrence to them. The idea of a mandatory custodial sentence for certain offences especially those relative to life-endangering products is the most effective tool to deter likely offenders.”
