Encomium
NORMALCY seemed to have returned to Computer Village, Ikeja, Lagos, one week after it was raided by Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) of what was termed fake and sub-standard products (phones and gadgets). Those whose wares were taken away are still counting their losses just as they are threatening to shut down the village to register their displeasure over the raid.
In the morning of July 12, 2014, business and economic activities were shut down at the Computer Village, Ikeja, Lagos, as SON officials with 50 policemen stormed the place taking phone sellers by surprise and raided their wares. Many phones, tablets and other gadgets were carted away, a development which did not go down well with phone sellers association in the village. They claimed the raid was illegal which flouted the agreement they had with SON.
One phone shop that suffered most in the raid is Trinity Communication, a phone retail outlet on Otigba Street, Computer Village, Ikeja, Lagos. Witnesses revealed phones and other gadgets worth millions of naira were forcefully removed from the outlet and those who confronted the SON team were dispersed with tear gas canisters.
About N200 million worth of gadgets were reportedly lost in the raid. Some phone dealers who spoke with ENCOMIUM Weekly about the incident on Thursday, July 24, 2014, lamented loss of their means of livelihood.
“I lost all I have to the raid. This should not be happening at this period when business is just coming back to life in the village after the government closed the place because of the death of the Olu of Ikeja (Oba Rauf Adeniyi Aremu Matemi). I am so sad and don’t know where to start,” a dealer, Mr. Ayoola Adeshiyan lamented.
“We don’t sell fake phones and gadgets. It’s all lies. This is what we do for a living. I am a graduate, I resort to selling gadgets here because I couldn’t secure a job. This is what I do for a living,” another phone dealer, Seyi McCarthy also lamented.
A mobile phone dealer who simply gave his name as Ndubuisi, reckoned the raid will not discourage him from doing his trade. “I sell phones, batteries and computer software. I didn’t lose anything in the raid. I don’t have money to rent a big shop. I won’t stop doing my business. I don’t sell fake. It is not even allowed here.”
The traders union president, Godfrey Nwosu said the raid by SON is becoming too rampant. He complained that the exercise has no authorization from the relevant authorities. He wondered why SON had to disrupt business activities in the market even when the phone sellers association has always cooperated with them and handed over errant traders to them in times past.
“We have a committee and we have even apprehended people with fake products in the market and handed them over to SON. We told them our executives will rid the market of all fake and sub-standard products. We even travelled to China with SON officials to enforce standard in products coming to Nigeria. The raid was a breach of trust and an attempt to intimidate traders who have done nothing but go about their lawful businesses.”
However, SON’s head of Intelligence and Compliance Directorate, Bede Obayi didn’t see the raid as illegal. Rather, it was for the sanitization of the market of sub-standard products. “The raid came about following the surveillance team’s reports that indicated the influx of sub-standard phones into the market.”
-FOLUSO SAMUEL
