Nigeria: SON case adjourned until January

According to a report in The Vanguard, the case against the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) brought by Alliance Against Monopoly has been adjourned until 7 January due to the absence of the first defendant, the Director-General of SON. The counsel for the Alliance Against Monopoly reportedly told the court that SON’s officials would not sign for the court processes served on them and requested an adjournment while he finds an alternative means of serving the defendants.

Alliance Against Monopoly has been fighting the SON on the introduction of new standards to the cement industry for the last several months. In August, the group declared that the 60-day timeframe given to cement producers by SON to implement new standards was insufficient. They further claimed that the policy of cement standardisation was a means to introduce ‘unwholesome monopoly in an otherwise clement cement industry’.

The cement standardisation policy was introduced by SON as a means of tackling building collapse, which they blamed on the inappropriate use of 32.5-grade cement for structural construction. In the new standards, 32.5-grade cement is to be used for plastering only, with 42.5-grade cement the new standard for construction.

Edited from various sources by Katherine Guenioui

Read the article online at: https://www.worldcement.com/africa-middle-east/03122014/nigeria-son-case-adjourned-until-january-947/