SON commences nationwide destruction of substandard tyres

The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), has embarked on a nationwide destruction of fake and expired tyres in the country in a move to prevent economic loss and to safeguard lives and property.

The Director-General, SON, Osita Aboloma, explained that courtesy of its new mantra, operation “gbale” the days of fake and expired tyres bringing nothing but economic loss are over.

Indeed, the standards body, citing the recent statistics issued by the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), stated that the rate of accidents caused by substandard tyres has reduced.

Aboloma who was represented by the Director, Inspectorate and Compliance, SON, Engr. Bede Obayi, during the destruction of some fake and expired tyres in Lagos, said, “We are going round the nation to pick all the expired tyres from every corner and make sure that they are properly destroyed. This is why we have brought you here today to kick off what we call the operation “gbale”. We have volumes of tyres across all our State offices in this country which we have mopped up as a result of our enforcement exercises.”

According to him, the agency has conducted series of nationwide campaigns on the negative effects of patronising these substandard tyres, urging consumers to check out for DOT numbers before purchasing tyres.

“We are going to be mopping up these products to make sure that Nigerians are protected from these people selling fake and expired tyres. We have acquired rugged machines that can destroy these tyres and condemn them. The present administration of the agency has made its promise to Nigerians that they are going to get value from our operations,” he assured.

“SON has been in the vanguard of fighting the menace of fake and substandard tyres coming into the country and we have seen cases of D.O.T erased to deceive Nigerians. We have been carrying out sensitisation campaigns against the use of these substandard tyres because these fairly used tyres have been thrown to the trash overseas and due to harsh weather, the tyres are dead on arrival when they arrive our shores,” he said
He stated that SON would continue to collaborate with other enforcement agencies to rid the country of substandard goods.

He pointed out that the issue of how to destroy the tyres was a challenge but stated that the agency has acquired rugged machines to destroy the products without causing environmental hazards.

“We didn’t want to throw the tyres into the sea because they will not melt and can cause aquatic problems and when they are burnt, it will cause environmental problems for Nigerians. So, SON got hi-tech machines to destroy the tyres beyond repairs so that they do not find their way into the markets to,” he said.

He said the destroyed substandard tyres were worth billions of naira, urging importers to get the approved SONCAP certification while also advising them to desist from stocking tyres into each other in a bid to save cost.

“The storage of a tyre determines its life span, when you continue stocking these tyres into each other, you are only reducing the strength of these tyres which makes them dead on arrival,” he said.