The Director General of Standards Organisation of Nigeria, SON, Dr Ikem Odumodu has said that the organization does not demand bribe for the issuance of MANCAP certificates.
The SON helms man said the allegation by some industrialists who protested at their Awka office last week was a calculated attempt to tarnish their image and bring them to disrepute.
Speaking with our correspondent in a telephone interview, Odumodu insisted that those who organized the protests were disgruntled people headed by the chairman of Bendusco industries limited, Mr Benjamin Nwaizu who is a specialist in faking other peoples products.
He said the protesters were people who engage in counterfeiting leading brands in Nigeria, and that in 2010 they received a report of the faking of a product, Bic, and on enquiries they found out that Bendusco was responsible.
“IN 2014 he applied for registration but we found he is not the original owner of the trademark. In 2015 he brought in a consignment of the products he is faking and he we confiscated it.
Odumodu also added that for any product to be genuine, it has to be the intellectual property of the producers and must have the address of the manufacturers.
He denied the allegations leveled against the organizations by the protesting manufacturers, saying that acquisition on a MANCAP certificate does not cost up to N100,000, and so the said protesters could not have been asked to pay a bribe of N20million as they alleged.
A group of protesters had last week gathered at the SON office in Awka with placards and chanting anti SON songs and calling for the sack of the DG on the grounds that he was out to frustrate the efforts of indigenous manufacturers in favour of foreign manufacturers.
