The Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has said that the nation’s porous borders remain one of the major reasons why efforts to control smuggling of sub-standard tyres into the country is not working as desired.
Giving this hint during a one-day sensitisation workshop for tyre marketers in Niger State, the organisation’s State Coordinator, Mr Badewole Sunday, said that the workshop, with the theme `Tyre Quality: Panacea for Road Safety’ was informed by the need to sensitise tyre traders and end users on the dangers of using sub-standard tyres.
A news report by News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), quoted the Coordinator as saying that during the recent visits to tyre dealers shops in the state recently, the organistaion discovered that some dealers were displaying and selling tyres that had expired to innocent motorists even at a high prices.
According to him, despite the dangers associated with the use of used and expired tyres, some motorists still bought the obsolete tyres.
He explained: “For that reason, we had to swing into action and confiscate all the expired and used tyres for the safety of motorists and their passengers in this yuletide season. We discovered that the issue of taking action against defaulters was not the key, hence the sensitisation workshop to educate them on the dangers of such expired products.”
The product quality expert pointed out that with the training, the marketers and buyers would be well informed about the need to check properly the expiry dates of tyres before buying them, warning that buying or using of expired tyres could constitute death trap for end users.
In his remarks at the forum, Niger State Sector Commander of Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Mallam Yusuf Garuba, noted that substandard tyres were the major cause of road accidents in the country.
Supporting his position with statistics, the Sector Commander, disclosed that deaths from vehicular accidents in the country were 162 death rate per 100, 000 population. This is even as he said that the socio-economic losses of such accidents cannot be quantified.
He therefore urged members of the public to complement the efforts of SON aimed at ensuring that imported tyres meet global standards.
