Ikpeazu, minister differ on seized fake tyres from China

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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.
The substandard tyres have already been con­fiscated by the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON).
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

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