The Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has sealed the premises of some tyre marketing companies in Awka and Onitsha in Anambra State for distributing suspected substandard tyres in Nigeria.
Samuel Ayuba, head of SON in the state, who led a team of officers on the operation on Tuesday, said that the raid was part of efforts to check further circulation of substandard tyres in the country.
Ayuba said the agency has received several complaints about the tyres which were imported and sold as new but fond to be substandard as they peeled off after covering some kilometres.
According to Ayuba, “The truck tyres they sold to some public users were very substandard; a particular transporter bought tyres worth ₦1.5 million from them and when they put the tyres in their vehicles, just about 50 miles the tyres started peeling off and it’s not one, not two, not three; they had to discontinue the use of those tyres and the complaint came to us.
“Luxury buses carry a lot of people; this is a bus that can carry up to 50, 60 people at a go, so it poses a threat to the public and if we had not done something about it as quickly as possible, these tyres will get far in this country.
“That is why the Standard Organisation of Nigeria had to take this decision to seal these warehouses.”
The SON boss advised consumers of products which did not give them value for money to report to the agency as it was ready to sanitise the market.
He warned that anyone who violated the seal on the companies would be made to face the law, stressing that the agency’s action was on the order of the Federal Government.
