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.
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