Two Chinese men, Taolung Shen and Xu Jing Yao have been arrested in Lagos for allegedly importing fake and substandard tyres into Nigeria.
The Chinese company, Sino Nigeria Import and Export Limited’s warehouse, located in Lagos was also sealed up by Standards Organisation of Nigeria (Son).
The Nation reports that the Director-General of SON Osita Aboloma, who showed reporters round the warehouse at Alakija area on Badagry Road in Lagos at the weekend, lamented that the importation of such tyres endangered the lives of millions of Nigerians.
The chinese men, Taolung Shen and Xu Jing Yao
Aboloma said many of the over three million tyres brought into the country in over 60 containers, had post-dated manufacturing dates –some of them with March 2017 date on them.
Aboloma said:“They also cloned 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.
“Many of the tyres arrived in Nigeria stuffed into one another. In some instances as many as five stuffed into one. Many are bent and ruptured and looking weak and slack.
“The 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 Nigerian.
“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.
“The nation’s laws must be made to work by ensuring that it is implemented to the letter. l must reiterate here that the full force of the SON Act that empowers her to prosecute offenders will be invoked on the perpetrators unsuspecting investors.
