Lagos Police boss orders probe of Computer Village violence.

The Lagos State Police Commissioner, Umar Manko, has begun investigations into the pandemonium that followed the weekend clamp down on some phone dealers alleged to be selling mobile phone devices not approved by the regulatory agencies, the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) and the Standard Organisation of Nigeria, SON.

Speaking yesterday, Joseph Nku, Deputy Superintendent of Police in-charge of the Police post at the Computer Village, said the CP had ordered that the case be investigated.
“We are aware that SON went to the market last Saturday with their own Police for the raid. The phone dealers affected had reported to us too. A panel of inquiry has been set up. Bad phones do not just enter the country. It is left for the regulatory agencies to check the influx of phones that are not type-approved,“ he explained.
An eyewitnesses at the market told Vanguard that Police and traders had a clash, leading to violence as Police shot sporadically into the air.
As the battle for brand supremacy raged, it was gathered that the affected phone dealers selling mostly made-in-China phones, who suspected that TECNO Mobile may have masterminded the raid, rushed to 3C Hub owned by TECNO and vandalized the company’s property. The offices were subsequently shut down.
Also reacting to the development, the President of Computer and Allied Product Dealers Association of Nigeria, CAPDAN, Mr. Tunde Balogun, noted that ICT vendors must comply with local standards.
He said: “Any vendor who does not comply with regulatory requirements should be brought to book. Enough is enough. It is time to sanitise the Nigerian market. Foreign vendors must comply with local regulations,” he said.
It would be recalled that the NCC, according to report, had as at October 30, 2013, type-approved about 849 different handset models from various mobile devices manufacturers.
Based on the principle of ensuring maximum affordability for end users, the type-approval standards set by the NCC were based on international standards from the International Electro-Technical Commission, IEC, and its International Special Committee on Radio Interference, CISPR, among others.
All equipment manufacturers, vendors and operators, including customer devices such as mobile phones and wireless adapters, must ensure that their equipment conform to the applicable standards as mandated by the commission before bringing them into Nigeria.