20th March, 2016
Funsho Balogun
Tyre dealers in Nigeria have been given a 24-hour ultimatum to destroy the fake products in their stores or risk a 10-year jail term.
This warning was given by the acting Director General of the Standards Organisation of Nigeria, SON, Paul Angya, after government recently empowered the agency by giving it the backing to jail dealers in substandard products.
Hitherto, such dealers had only gotten slaps on the wrist punishment for their actions by having their fake goods destroyed. But henceforth, according to the SON chief, the agency will come down harder on fake tyre dealers.
SON’s resolve to deal with the fake tyre dealers was made stronger by the report released by the Federal Road Safety Commission, FRSC on causes of accidents in 2015.
According to statistics in the report, out of 8,986 accidents recorded in 2015, 722 were caused by tyre bursts, resulting in the death of 446 persons.
Angya’s position on the report is that the fake tyre dealers are directly responsible for these deaths. He has therefore threatened that dealers of fake tyres would equally be charged for murder.
“We are going to stamp out corruption among the tyre dealers. We are going to set up a taskforce and we will not sleep until we confirm that accidents in this country are not traced to substandard tyres again,” says the SON acting DG who also made it known that the agency also has the legal authority to close any outlet or store displaying substandard tyres for at least three months without taking the matter to any court.
According to him, the ultimate punishment for such dealers has now been upped to 10 years imprisonment. “If you have fake tyres in your shop, make sure you get rid of them before the next 24 hours before our team visits you and we proceed go ahead to charge you for murder,” Angya warns.
Being fully aware of corruption within the system at SON, he disclosed that it would soon be eliminated when e-payment, e-invoice and e-receipt is introduced.