Traders at the Building Materials Market, Ogidi and Ogbunike, in Idemili and Oyi Local Government Areas of Anambra State, on Friday, protested what they described as “extortion” and “illegal sealing of shops” allegedly by personnel of the Standards Organisation of Nigeria.

The protesters carried placards with various inscriptions such as ‘SON, enough is enough’, ‘Say no to illegal extortion by SON’, ‘SON, stop intimidating us’, ‘SON, stop demanding money from us’, ‘SON go to Wharf not markets’, among others.

Speaking to journalists as they marched around the major roads across the community, the spokesperson for the traders, Marvelous Line, Kenneth Ofoegbunam, said some officials of SON have been demanding the sum of N8 million from the traders allegedly for an undisclosed offence.

Ofoegbunam said, “The officials of SON came into our market this morning to impound our goods and sealed some shops because we refused to pay the N8 million they demanded from us.

“They first came about three weeks ago and sealed four shops out of 30 shops. They also told us that they would seal more shops unless we paid N8 million for an offense they did not disclose to us. They said ‘Just pay N8 million and you are set free from embarrassment’ and we said no.

“Then after some days they came again with personnel of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps and we chased them away. Today they reinforced, came with five Hilux load of policemen, NCDC, and other security men, and made straight to the shops they sealed previously to impound the goods therein but we resisted them.

“They started shooting guns into the air to scare us and in the process, they made away with some goods estimated into millions of naira. As I talk to you now, the owners of the impounded goods have urged the state government to come to their rescue

“We are saying that the SON personnel should leave us alone, we are doing legitimate business in this market. SON should be confined only at the Wharf and country borders and not markets.”

Also, the secretary of the market, Tochukwu Uduezue, lamented that SON personnel focused on markets because their interest was to extort them.

“The state government should please come to our rescue because they are out to extort us. How can we pay millions for us to be free from them? Where do we get the money from and what is our offense? The Wharf and boundaries are there for them to operate from and not the markets.

“We are mere marketers and not importers and we deal in genuine business with documents to back up our purchases. What they are doing is illegal and we will not relent in resisting the payment of N8 million extortion,” Uduezue added.

Also a trader who simply identified herself as Madam Okeke lamented that most women in the market have their goods impounded by SON for no just cause, stating that until the state government comes to the rescue of the traders, the SON personnel have seen the market as “oil well”.

At the time of filing this report, most shops were under lock and key over the fear of a return of the officials for the seizure of goods and seal of more shops.

In his reaction, when contacted, the Director, SON, Anambra Regional Office, Mathias Bassey, denied the alleged extortion of N8 million from the traders, describing it as blackmail.

Basset said, “Most of them sell substandard building materials and roofing sheets, our people have made efforts to see how we can talk to them to see if they could turn around and buy what is right.

“We seek partnership with them, not to be an enemy to them, but because they feel that what they are doing is cheaper and more profitable, they said Nigerians cannot buy the costly ones and they resorted to selling fake materials.

“Each time we go there, they will lock up their shops and run away, if they feel what they are doing is right, why will they lock their shops and run away?”

“The alleged N8 million extortion is not true; if we say they should pay money and they are not paying, why are they running, they should have stood their ground and said we are not paying, not locking up their shops and run away.” (The Nation)

Update news