Firm Sues Importers, Police for Right Infringement

For what was described as ‘unlawful seizure of its goods and
detention of its driver’, a firm, Echo Breeze Nigerian Limited, a
member of the Association of Nigeria Tyre Marketers, has sued the
Importers Association of Nigeria and questioned the right of the
association to barricade road to disrupt businesses and extorts
money from members of the public.

The company has also challenged one Mr. Obi Adrian Ifeanyi, who
claimed to be representing IMAN in the Southwest for usurping the
power of the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON), the Consumer
Protection Council (CPC), NAFDAC and security agencies empowered by
the government to effect standardisation of manufacturing and
imported goods in the country.

In a suit filed at the Ogun State High Court, Sagamu division,
the company joined the association and the Nigerian police in the
suit for seizure of its goods at Sagamu and detained both the goods
and the driver of the truck.

When a manager of the company, Mr. Chimezie Maduka, led a cross
section of journalists to Sagamu Police Station during the week,
his lorry with the Edo State registration number, BEN802XC, was
among the three lorries impounded in front of the station. The two
other lorries were conveying electrical equipment and tyres to
Onitsha and Benin respectively.

Speaking on the issue, lawyer of the Association of Nigeria Tyre
Marketers, Mr. Olusola Kazeem Salawu, said the action was an
infringement on the fundamental human right of Maduka and his
company, since none of them is a member of IMAN, the association
Ifeanyi claimed to be representing.

“It is illogical for an association to stand on the highway
claiming to arrest their members with fake goods, claiming to have
the authority of the presidency without any instruments or
equipment to check substandard good. More importantly, the owner of
the truck was not a member of their association. In Sagamu, an
individual with two police escorts, is harassing and intimidate
innocent members of the public,” he said.

Speaking with journalists Mr. Cletus Ebare, who spoke on behalf
of the three drivers at the police station, stated that among other
things, Ifeanyi collected their driver’s licences, vehicle
particulars, keys as well as removing the batteries of their
lorries.

When asked by the reporters if he had the power to seize goods,
Ifeanyi, who said he was representing his association to save
Nigeria economy, showed a letter of authority with the permission
he got from the Nigerian Police, through the Zone 2 Police Command
in Lagos. He also stated that all he asked from the drivers was the
SONCAP certificate for their products and that those still detained
were yet to produce it.

However, the story took a new turn when Sagamu DPO, Moses
Aduroja, a CSP, who had initially stated that his station had no
hand in how the lorries were intercepted, took both the
representative of the company and Ifeanyi to the Area Commander,
where they both disagreed on whose right to check SONCAP and
confiscation of substandard goods.