The Standards Organisation of
Nigeria has arrested two Chinese nationals, Taolung Shen and Xu Jing Yau, who
were said to have dealt in substandard tyres worth over N5bn, Vanguard
reports.
The tyres, described by Standard Organisation of Nigeria, SON, as the
largest seizure of substandard tyres in one swoop in the history of Nigeria, is
about two million and worth over N5 billion.
Director-General and Chief
Executive, of SON, Osita Aboloma, who conducted journalists round the
warehouse, described the tyres as dead on arrival, adding that allowing them to
enter the market amounted to surreptitiously taking away the lives of millions
of Nigerians.
The two were paraded before newsmen,
following their arrest, and the sealing of the warehouse where they had been
cloning different sizes of tyres under such brand names as Powertrac, Aptany,
Harmony, Duraturn, Bearway, City Tour, Winda, Glory, Chachland, City Grand,
Grandsonte (Tyre Type) and Sunny (for tricycle), among others.
Aboloma said the Chinese importers
were busted through inter-agency collaboration and intelligence received from
“well meaning Nigerians.”
According to him, “we acted on the
intelligence we received from well-meaning Nigerians. This was achieved as a
result of inter-agency collaboration. The glory is not for SON alone.
You can see the number of tyres
brought in and you can imagine the implication for our society if these tyres
are let into the market.
“We have over 60 containers of
tyres; actually stuffed tyres to be precise. Again, even if these are to be
standard tyres, the fact that up to five of them were tucked into one, with
operators using rods to separate them from one another when they reached
Nigeria, the tyres will naturally become substandard.
“This is because in the course of
separating them, the wires and geometrics of the tyres will be affected.”
He said stuffing tyres through the
long sea journey from China to Lagos had already compromised the quality, not
to talk of the crude way the tyres were separated on arrival in Nigeria and the
poor storage facility, without sufficient aeration in the warehouse.
It was observed that the Chinese
adorned the tyres with new labels and shiny linings to create the impression
that they were new.
Aboloma added: “SON Directorate of
Compliance intercepted one of their trucks on the highway, tracked it and then
this. You can see the amount of danger that these people are posing to our
people and our economy just because they want to make huge profit at the
expense of the lives of Nigerians.”
He said on getting to the premises,
they also uncovered other illicit activities including re-labelling, high level
of stuffing of several tyres into one, tampering with expiry dates and stacking
the tyres in very bad conditions.
He said: “It is a clear case of
investing millions in illicit business to destroy the lives of millions of
Nigerians. If we should allow something like this, it will amount to killing
Nigerians.”
He showed tyres in stock at the
warehouse postdated January as date of manufacture, adding “because we have
sensitised the public that while buying tyres, they should look out for the
manufacturing date, these people postdated their tyres to reflect manufacturing
date to be first week of January 2017.
“However, the tyres berthed on
Nigerian soil first week of February 2017. So, are they saying it took them only
four weeks to bring the tyres from China to Nigeria across the sea?”
Aboloma thanked SON Directorate of
Compliance for discovering the warehouse and other meaningful Nigerians for
volunteering information to the agency, saying that those arrested in connection
with the latest deal would be tried in line with the new SON Act and if found
guilty, prosecuted.
Aboloma advised users of automobile
tyres nationwide on the need to be extra cautious when making purchases of such
products.
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