Some cities in Nigeria namely Lagos, Onitsha, Benin, Ibadan and others have been listed as major dumping grounds for substandard tyres imported into the country by dubious foreign nationals through the aid of Nigerians.
This was made known by the Importers Association of Nigeria (IMAN).
Igwe John Ezeoma, Chief of Staff to National President of IMAN, Hon. Kinsley Chikezie, disclosed this in Onitsha, Anambra State, while reacting to growing substandard tyres in the country and its effects to lives and property.
He regretted that the substandard tyres contributed mostly to the accidents on nation’s roads, warning that the body would soon raid the Onitsha Kamange warehouse.
He said, “these substandard tyres that you call tukumbo are stuffed in bigger tyres and imported into Nigeria from China, India, Pakistan, Lebanon and Thailand by dubious foreign nationals and dumped in Lagos, Onitsha, Ibadan, Oyo and Edo warehouses.
“About 95 per cent of the Importers are foreigners and IMAN special taskforce jointly with the police raided two of the warehouses, (Kamange) in Lagos and Edo, where over 4,500 substandard tyres owned by a Chinese national, were dumped and they have been sealed by Standard Organisation of Nigeria, SON.
“We will soon raid the Onitsha Kamange warehouse located along Borromeo Onitsha/Enugu Old road and others because these substandard tyres contribute mostly to the accidents on our roads”.
While exonerating IMAN from bribery allegations by dubious foreign nationals who dump the substandard tyres, Ezeoma warned that their members found culpable would not be spared as lives were being wasted unnecessarily.
He added “It is greedy people like these foreign nationals that damage Nigerian economy. If it were in their own country that they commit this kind of thing, it is death sentence.
“These foreign nationals make a lot of money from Nigerians by bringing expired and substandard tyres into Nigeria because they think they are smart but now that we are going after them, some have gone underground but that will not deter us because they have their agents.”
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