Court orders burning of N42m O’sha markets fake shoe polish

OVER 1,600 tins of fake shoe polish allegedly manufactured by a popular brand were burned in Anambra State yesterday.

  The products, whose value was estimated at about N42 million, was rounded up from some markets in Onitsha following an impromptu raid by consumer protection and quality regulatory agencies.

  The exercise followed an order of a Federal High Court sitting in Awka which ordered the destruction of the fake product by burning.

  Justice I. B. Gafai also ordered that in addition to the destruction of the fake products, properties of the importers will be seized, with N2 million awarded against them.

  Expressing gratitude to the judiciary while urging market leaders to wipe out fake products from their markets, a counsel in the case, Tagbo Anaeto, described faking of genuine products as a great economic sabotage as it was an infringement on the trademark of registered owners of products which the law will punish, no matter whose ox is gored.

  “It is an on-going exercise. We are in every market to fish out fake products, especially from markets in Onitsha. Those involved in the illegal act do so under the cover of a company and we are happy that the court has directed the Standards Organisation of Nigeria to sanction them appropriately.

We are also happy that the fake products are no longer as prevalent as they used to be as the people involved are beginning to realise that the law is unrelenting in fighting against fake polish importers,” he said.