The Director General of Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Joseph Odumodu has expressed deep concern over the influx of used tyres into the country.
Odumodu, who blamed this trend on the porous Nigerian borders, said these tyres are not only bad but are responsible for most auto crashes in the country.
The DG expressed this at a one-day training on tyres organised in collaboration with the tyre marketing and servicing giant in Nigeria, Infinity Tyres Limited for staff of SON and other stakeholders in Abuja.
The SON boss called on relevant authorities to ensure that there is a stop to the importation, while promising his organsiation’s readiness to ‘deal’ with any seller of such tyres whenever they are caught.
He also advised Nigerian motorists against their increasing patronage of the fairly used tyres, popularly called Tokunbo, saying safety of human lives should always be given top consideration.
Odumodu explained that the training was in continuation of the organisation’s efforts to ensure standards in all products for the safety of Nigerians.
In his words: “The objective of the training was to equip staff of the agency and other stakeholders with the ability to identify standard and substandard tyres. This is not only meant for our technical staff, but also the supporting staff so that they can go out to be ambassadors of the agency on its zero tolerance for substandard products.”
Odumodu, who was represented by the Director of Operations, Dr John Achuku assured that “the training is going to be a continuous exercise” that would also be replicated in all the six geo-political zones of the country.
According to him, SON would not relent on its efforts of eradicating the importation of substandard products into the country, vowing that “it’s going to be a continuous war that must be won”.
“The competitive factor is the tokunbo tyres being imported to the country, we all know that government has banned tokunbo tyres. They don’t come in through the usual ports, but are being smuggled into the country, and that is why we are striving hard to ensure that such practice is eliminated”, he said.
He said that SON had done a lot of analyses of tyres, disclosing that the agency recently seized about 1, 000 substandard tyres in Lagos and other markets across the country.
“The major challenge we have now is the issue of banned tyres that still find their ways to the country through so many porous borders, but we have been working with the Customs and other agencies to stop this, especially since they have been banned and there is no standard for used items, they are not supposed to be marketing in the country.
“But for the new tyres, some of them are substandard because they have passed their usefulness years and are not supposed to be using on the roads. Some tyres are rubbers and after four to five years, they would have passed their normal usefulness period. So such ones we have been able to curtail such tyres from being coming to the country”, he said.
Also speaking at the event, Managing Director, Infinity Tyres Limited, Mr. Asghar Abdulrahman Palavkar said the company wanted Nigerians to do away with Tokunbo tyres “because they are substandard and people should always be mindful of their safety and go for quality tyres approved for usage in the country”.
According to him, “The company was not only after the purchase of its tyres but also their maintenance, because we cherish safety of human lives. Apart from technical training, we offered practical training for the people”.
Palavkar assured that the company would continue to deliver the best in tyerms of products and services to Nigerians.
Also fielding questions from newsmen, chairman of Tyres Dealers Association, Zuba market, Chief Chimezie Umeajeakor urged the government to curb the importation of the banned tyres from the ports and borders instead of allowing them to get to the markets before taking action.
He alleged that some law enforcement agents at the borders are involved in the importation of the banned tyres and other products into the country, but assured that his association would continue to discourage its members from the sales of the banned products.
The tyre dealer, who said the association in collaboration with the government burnt some substandard tyres at the market recently, however, called on consumers not to patronise them so as to discourage the dealers.