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Firms urge SON to end 12-year attack by counterfeiter

By on September 1, 2015

The Nigeria Ball Point Pen Industries Plc (NIPPEN), makers of BIC products including shavers and pens, along with Van Morris Links Limited franchise owners of Dorco shavers, has called on the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) to sustain the effort to end the attack of Bendusco and D&K which has allegedly counterfeited their products for over 12 years.

The two companies told journalists at the weekend that SON must be encouraged not to succumb to the blackmail of a fake protest sponsored by the alleged serial counterfeiter, Bendusco and its principal, Benjamin Ugochukwu Nwaizu, in Awka, Anambra State, in a bid to blackmail SON by casting aspersion of corruption on the agency.

The National Sales Manager of NIPPEN, Mr. Olashore Fatai, lamented that Nwaizu and his ‘counterfeiting’ enterprise has fleeced the country and the companies billion of naira for over five years, eating up to 50 per cent of their market share by the influx of his fake products in the market.

He said the alleged attack by Nwaizu and his outfits on their companies in the past 12 years saw the ‘fakers’ dump about over 30 million units of counterfeit products in the market, cornering 30 to 50 per cent of the market and diverting over N2billion to himself every year with no adequate taxes and revenues accruing to the government.

He urged the public to totally disregard the unfounded allegation that a N20 million bribe was solicited from Bendusco by SON, alleging “that blackmail was one method by which Nwaizu sustains his nefarious and criminal business activities to the detriment of the economy.

“Imagine a man whose companies operate only at night. If you go to the run-down places where he carries out the counterfeiting, you will not see any sign that production activities take place there. During the day, nothing goes on in the place; the women who innocently work in the place only work in the cover of darkness to prevent being discovered by the law and the companies whose business he is destroying with his criminal activities.

“This man has made a fortune by taking advantage of our brand for over 12 years. We have repeatedly received complaints from consumers and our distributors about some products bearing our name and stamp being of terrible quality and sometimes causing them health challenge and it was not until six years of this illicit practice that we were able to trace the first factory from where this criminal act was taking place.

“Bendusco International Agency Limited and D&K Industries have engaged in producing, importing and selling fake BIC shaving sticks for over 12 years now. The search of the location where they carry out this nefarious activities took us six years to unravel-from 2006 to 2012-, and when we discovered the first hideout located in Nwaziki street, Awada, Onitsha, Anambra State, we sought the assistance of SON which raided the factory and seized some products and equipment on September 26, 2012.

“Due to our persistence and SON’s effective monitoring and regulation, we discovered another two illegal factories belonging to the same Nwaizu in November, 2014, which SON also raided and closed down. Since then, he went covert, importing all the fake products from abroad and simply packaging and selling them locally,” Fatai said.

Also speaking about the serious impact of the activity of the counterfeiter on their business, the legal counsel to Van Morris Links, Mr. Okon Uye, said his company, which is the only legal franchisee of Dorco shaving sticks and other products in the country, had suffered greatly in the hands of Nwaizu who has made massive business for over a decade of violation of their franchise rights.

The National Sales Manager of NIPPEN, Fatai,  said Nwaizu at different occasions would simply disappear when SON clamps down on his illegal business to avoid arrest only to approach a court to procure injunctions to prevent SON or other government agencies from arresting him.

“How do you explain a man who simply skittles away when he finds that the government agents have discovered his hideout and impounded his equipment? He does not put up any protest; he does not come to SON to argue his case because he knows he is guilty. He simply goes to court and procure an exparte and then create another hideout.

“SON has done a great job smoking this man out. We wrote a petition to SON to report the criminal activities of this man and his companies, and we are happy that
SON has responded as a responsible government agency should.

“We call on President Muhammadu Buhari to further empower agencies like SON to be able to tackle these sorts of people who are only interested in illicit business,” he said.

 

[ThisDay]