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‘I wanted to make quick money since there is a high demand in the market for the Golden Fertilizer by farmers’
By Valentine Amanze
The effort of the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) to rid the nation of fake and substandard products is yielding results, with the arrest of a suspected producer of fake Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium fertilizer at Chinade town in Katagum Local Government Area of Bauchi State.
The SON North East Zonal Coordinator, Adamu Abba, who paraded the suspect, Alhaji Ibrahim Ahmed-Chanade, before journalists at the weekend, added that no fewer than 150 bags of counterfeit fertilizer were recovered from the suspect at his Chinade market shop last week.
The coordinator further disclosed that the suspect was caught producing and re-bagging the counterfeit Golden Fertilizer using four different combination sacks of fertilizer products of Mai Rago, Freedom, Boko and Indoorama.
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On how the suspect was arrested, the head of SON operations team, Murtala Sa’ad, said upon the receipt of an intelligence report, he quickly mobilised his team to the site, and they arrested him at the location.
His words: “During the operation, we were able to confiscate over 150 bags of counterfeit Golden fertilizer already made at the site.
“We closed down the place and got him arrested without any resistance from both the producer and the community.”
Sa’ad said the suspect would be charged to court for prosecution on violation of Section (26) in relation to the standards of the SON amended Act of 2015 after investigations were concluded.
The suspect, Alhaji Ibrahim Ahmed-Chanade, however, said that he was pushed into the crime because of his desire to make quick money.
“I was ignorant of the existing laws on standardisation. Secondly, I wanted to make quick money since there is a high demand in the market for the Golden Fertilizer by farmers.
“I’m appealing to them (SON) to temper justice with mercy on me because this is the first time I am making this mistake,” he said.
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