Two Chinese Arrested For Importing N5bn Fake Tyres

The Standards Organisation of Nigeria, says it has arrested two Chinese nationals, identified as Taolung Shen and Xu Jing Yau, for dealing in substandard tyres worth over N5bn.

According to a statement on Sunday, the warehouse where they had been cloning different sizes of tyres under different brand names was also sealed.

The suspects 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, the statement read.

According to the agency, 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 noted 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.