By Chinedu Adonu

ENUGU – STANDARD Organization of Nigeria, SON, has destroyed over N50m worth of sub-standard tyres in Enugu.

It was gathered that the tyres were of good standard as at the time it was produced but due to stuffing and unstuffy of the tyre by importers it became sub-standard.

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Addressing pressmen briefly before destroying the tyres, the Director of Inspectorate and compliance directorate of SON, Engr. Obiora Manata who represented the Director General, DG, of the agency, Mr Osita Aboloma disclosed that the agency is fighting to stop selling of substandard products in Nigeria.

Mabata who disclosed that the product was confiscated at Port Harcourt when it was about to be moved to the market, stated that it has gotten all the legal requirements according to the law to destroy the products.

He condemned the act of some importers who indulge in stuffing more than four tyres  into a slightly bigger tyres to desist from such acts as it puts lives at risk.

“First of all I want to welcome all of you here today especially our sister agencies on behalf of our DG son. It shows the level of collaboration and corporations we have with our sisters agencies, because the fight against sub-standard products, is not something one can do it alone. So, we are fighting in synergy with police, DSS, Police and other security agencies.

“Today we are here to carry out a very important exercise in the nation, to destroy some substandard products, tyres. We have a number of substandard tyre which is not good to use in your vehicle and that’s why we brought them here to destroy.

“Ordinarily the tyres as manufactured were not sub-standard but because of the act of stuffing and unstuffing the tyre becomes substandard. Stuffing is when you squeezed and rammed into another bigger tyre. They have purpose of doing this to cheat the government and when you do this stuffing you causes both visible and invisible damages to it. It will created a lot of dent and causes danger to the user and the owner.

“The position of the agency was to seize this kind of substandard product and destroy them. The products was intercepted when they are about to enter the country. That’s why I told you that we work in synergy with other sister agencies.

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“If we confiscate we take them to lab to check the standard, go to court and obtain court order and whatever the court says will be carried out by the agency”, He said.

Manata while charging the importers to do the right thing according to the act of NIS, 252 2017 urged the buyers to do a proper examination of tyres before buying them to ensure that they are   good and the life span was still valid.

Reacting after destroying the tyres, the commandant of Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, Enugu command, Commander, Chinwe Kannu, who expressed shock over the tyres worth million naira which were destroyed, commended SON for the good work.

Kannu urged the buyers to check the tyres before buying and to report any case to security agencies.