Counterfeit products creating problems for Nigeria seized by law enforcement agencies

In an operation against suppliers of counterfeit rolling bearings in trade fair complex Aspamda, over 2.5 tons of counterfeit products were seized by the Nigerian law enforcement agency alongside SKF Swedish Rolling bearing company who disclosed to the press during the operation that millions of lives are being endangered as a result of these counterfeit bearings.

The main source of the counterfeit detected by the law enforcement agency, Tonason Evergreen LTD also known as Bearing kings LTD located at Aspamda market was unfortunately locked up with the owner on the run. But with the help of the court order, the police obtained force entry into one of the smaller outlet named Bearing Embassy located in Kayus Bearing Plaza, where over 7,000 counterfeit products as determined by SKF technical experts were seized.

According to Tina Astrom an SKF representative, she said that this company has not only  been supplying sub-standard counterfeit parts to Nigerian users for some time which has been causing large problems for its users, they have also instilled their trademark on these counterfeits products causing buyers to buy these counterfeits the same price as the genuine ones.

“I would expect that Nigerian authorities would act firmer as these counterfeits parts are bound to create problems for the Nigerian society and its citizens due to the fact that bearings are used in many critical machinery such as elevators, cars, and airplanes and also in important public utility companies such as electricity plants and water supplies. Failures of which could lead to expensive downtime, loss of jobs, accident, and loss of lives.” Astrom said.

“More so, no one wants to be the owner of a vehicle crashing to a counterfeit, equally everyone detests power cut outs that may well have been caused by counterfeit mechanical parts and finally who wants to put their children on an airplane with counterfeit bearings mounted in the engine? All the more reason why we sought reason to totally eradicate counterfeits of the SKF product alongside the Nigerian law enforcement agency” Astom further said.

This company has also many outlets in Nigeria of which they supply to other resellers, direct users and also export to other African countries. And as such SKF urges all bearing users to use safe suppliers and black list any supplier that they have received counterfeit products from.

“To avoid being victims of this fraud and prevent serious accidents, bearing users are recommended to use the app ‘SKF Authenticate’ which is available on the goggle play app. The app is used to take photos f the product and SKF specialist will respond within 24/7 basis.” Astrom said.