Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State and the Minister of Trade and Investment, Mr Okechukwu Enelama, have disagreed on how best to handle the N5 billion worth of fake and substandard tyres allegedly imported into Nigeria by some Chinese nationals.
Enelama had, while responding to a question yesterday on what would be done to the seized tyres during a town hall meeting in Umuahia, said they would be destroyed after final investigations.
But Gov Ikpeazu, during his submission, differed from the minister, suggesting that it makes no economic sense for the tyres of such enormous quantity to be destroyed when there are other beneficial ways of handling them for national interest.
He suggested that instead of burning such a large quantity of rubber product with grave environmental and health risk, it would make more economic sense to use them to set up local companies that would use them to produce conveyor belts and allied products.
He further noted that outright destruction of the products could trigger diplomatic roar between Nigerian and China, hence the need to persuade the importers to set up factories in Nigeria where the tyres could be used to produce local products that would not pose any risk to consumers.
On the lingering tussle between Prof Bath Nnaji’s Geometrics Aba and the Enugu Electricity Development Corporation (EEDC) on power distribution to Aba, the governor said the stalemate would soon be over.
He hinted that he had brokered a deal between the duo and AFREXIM bank where the bank accepted to provide Geometrics with 100 million Dollars to pay off EEDC.
Source: the authorityngr
