SON impounds N5bn substandard Tyres and seals Lagos Warehouse
The ongoing sanitisation efforts of the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has recorded a huge success with the unravelling and sealing in Lagos, on Saturday, of a factory with substandard tyres worth over N5bn.
The haul, about the agency’s biggest in the recent, involved a Chinese-run company, Sino Tyres Limited, tucked by Navy Town in the Ojo area of the state, followed diligent surveillance by the Investigation and compliance division of the SON led by Engr Bede Obayi.
The tyres were estimated at about 2 million, some destroyed on arrival through stuffing into one another.
SON Director-General and Chief Executive, Mr Anthony Aboloma who conducted journalists round the premises of the company, put the cost of the tyres at about N5bn, saying some of the people connected had already been picked up and were now chatting with the police.
An obviously worried Aboloma, put the cost of the seized products at about N5billion, saying aside the cost, the practice portended grave danger for lives and property as well as for the nation’s economy.
“We 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 money”, Aboloma said.
He said getting to the premises of the company revealed a lot of illicit activities, including re-labelling, high level of stuffing of several tyres into one, tampering with expiry dates and staking the tyres in very adverse conditions.
“it is a clear case of investing millions in illicit business in order to take away the lives of millions of Nigerians. to destroy the lives of millions of Nigerians. If we should allow something like this, it will amount to killing Nigerians”, Aboloma said.
He showed tyres in the stock post-dated January as manufactured date but that were already in the country as at the time of the seizure, despite that it would take months for shipments from China to arrive Nigeria, saying such anticipatory dating had malicious intentions.
The brands in the seizure included Powertrac, Aptany, Harmony, Duraturn, Bearway, City Tour, Winda, Glory, Chachland, City Grand, Grandsonte (Tyre Type) And Sunny (for tricycle) amongst others.
Aboloma thanked Nigerians for their volunteering of information to the SON, 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.
He said his agency was exploring all avenues towards nipping acts like the one under reference in the bud, and would as a matter of need; intensify activities towards market surveillance, inter-agency collaboration, as well as public sensitisation and consumer awareness.
“For us, it is a continuous fight. Currently, we are prosecuting about five cases in different high courts in line with the mandate of the SON, we burn substandard products when there is need to, following laid down procedures in all of these”, he said.
