The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja has dismissed the appeal filed by Sunshine Chemical Development Company Limited against the Standards Organisation of Nigeria, SON, claiming that SON acted in bad faith for rejecting the company’s application to import sugar unfortified with Vitamin A.
Sunshine Chemical Development Company Limited had approached the appellate court to overturn a ruling of the Federal High Court, Abuja, presided by Justice B. F. M. Nyako, which held that SON merely acted pursuant to the lawful directives of its supervising ministry and in accordance with the Vitamin-A Food Fortification Regulations of 2005, in denying the application of the said to import sugar unfortified with Vitamin A into the country.
In a unanimous decision by a 3-man panel of justices, led by Justice Biobele Abraham Georgewil, the appellate court held that SON acted neither in bad faith nor outside the scope and limits of its powers under the enabling statute, regulations and directives from its supervisory Ministry.
According to the court, “the company’s cause of action was undoubtedly and irredeemably statute barred by the virtue and operations of the provisions of Section 2(a) of the Public Officers Protection Act, LFN 2004,” thereby dismissing the case for being statute barred.
Spokesperson of the Standards Organisation of Nigeria, Mrs. Foluso Bolaji, in a statement, explained that ”by virtue of the provisions of the Vitamin A Food Fortification Regulations of 2005, importation of sugar not fortified with Vitamin A without the leave of the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment is prohibited.”
Bolaji said in 2005, Sunshine Chemical Development Company Limited applied for an approval from the Standards Organisation of Nigeria for the importation of 7,500 metric tonnes of sugar unfortified with Vitamin A.
She noted that the company was duly informed of the Federal Government of Nigeria’s policy on sugar importation and advised that by the intervention of the Presidential Technical Committee on Sugar Importation, three companies were permitted to coordinate the importation of sugar unfortified with Vitamin A for manufacturing purposes with the condition that the final products will be fortified with Vitamin A.
She also explained that the request from the company was forwarded to the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, who confirmed the position of government and advised the company to re-route its request through any of the three companies approved by the Federal Government to coordinate such importation.
Bolaji added that dissatisfied with the position, Sunshine Chemical Development Company Limited instituted a case against SON.
She said the judgment of the Appeal Court has cemented the fact that SON as an organization is living up to its mandate of promoting standardization and quality assurance with the aim of protecting Nigeria and Nigerians from the adverse effect of substandard goods.
She stressed that the organization works tirelessly to assist business owners improve their businesses through standardization within the ambit of the law.
She further explain that SON has graduated from just being standards providers and regulator to being business facilitators in line with the Federal Government’s Ease of Doing Business initiative.
She reiterated the commitment of the Director-General /Chief Executive of SON, Mallam Farouk Salim to supporting and encouraging local industries in an effort to revitalizing the nation’s economy.