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| Taolung Shen and Xu Jing Yau |
The Standards Organization
of Nigeria has arrested two Chinese nationals, Taolung Shen and Xu Jing Yau,
who were said to have dealt in substandard tyres worth over ₦5bn.
The Punch report continues:
The
suspects, according to a statement on Sunday, were paraded following their
arrest, and the sealing of the warehouse where they had been cloning different
sizes of tyres under different brand names.
The
suspects, the statement added, churned out the substandard tyres into the
Nigerian market under brand names such as Powertrac, Aptany, Harmony, Duraturn,
Bearway, City Tour, Winda, Glory, Chachland, City Grand, Grandsonte and Sunny.
According
to SON, the suspects brought the substandard tyres into Nigeria by stuffing
them into one another.
“Sometimes
as many as five tyres were stuffed into one and the tyres would have bent and
ruptured in several places, thereby looking weak and slack.
“But
the Chinese adorned the tyres with new labels and shinny linings to create the
impression of being new and healthy,” SON said.
Some
of the tyres found in the warehouse had post-dated manufacturing dates.
The
agency’s Director General, Osita Aboloma, who conducted journalists round the
warehouse, described the tyres as dead on arrival, saying allowing the sale of
such tyres in the country amounted to “surreptitiously taking away the lives of
millions of Nigerians.”
He
observed that by stuffing the tyres into one another and conveying them through
the sea from China to Lagos, the quality of the tyres had already been
compromised.
Aboloma
also noted that the crude way the tyres were separated on arrival in Nigeria
and the poor storage facility, without sufficient aeration, in the warehouse
had further compromised their quality.
“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 Nigerians.
“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 allow something like this, it will amount to killing
Nigerians,” Aboloma said.
The
DG said there would be no hiding place for people who dealt in adulterated
products in the country.
“I
want to reiterate that there is no hiding place for those who deal in
substandard products as they would be caught and their products confiscated.
Today’s feat is an example,” he said.
Aboloma
advised users of automobile tyres nationwide on the need to be extra-cautious
when making purchases of such products.
He urged tyre users to henceforth demand that dealers indicate the manufacturing dates on the receipts, so as to make the seller take responsibility on any product sold by them.
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