The Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) on Monday announced that it would begin to impound vehicles with expired or substandard tyres.
The Corps Marshal of the FRSC, Boboye Oyeyemi, stated this at a stakeholders’ forum in Abuja, organised by the FRSC to enlighten motorists on the dangers of substandard or expired tyres.
Mr. Oyeyemi said the measure became necessary in view of recent road accidents usually caused by poor tyre usage by vehicle owners.
“What we’re going to commence immediately is that any vehicle that has expired tyres or substandard tyres, we’re going to impound the vehicles”, the FRSC boss said. “Enough is enough to this. All the crises we’re talking about from February this year to April, they were all tyre-related”.
“After impounding it (the vehicle), we’ll ask the owner to go and replace it with a genuine one. The passengers we’ll arrange for their continuous journey so as to reduce the pains. But I will not allow an expired tyre fitted on a vehicle to continue the journey”, Mr. Oyeyemi added.
He also decried the lack of tyre manufacturing companies in the country and appealed to appropriate authorities to do their utmost best in ensuring that the situation is addressed.
“It’s not a problem that started today, we’ve been raising this alarm since Dunlop and Michelin shut down in Nigeria and relocated”, the FRSC boss said. “So it’s a result of this that led to over 250 different distorted substandard tyres in the country today and we appeal to Manufacturers Association of Nigeria and Nigerian Association of Chamber of Commerce Industry Mines and Agriculture to do their very best in looking into this and see how tyre manufacturing plants can be brought into life.
“Nigeria is too big not to have a tyre manufacturing plant. That is the bane of the problem we have on ground today”, Mr. Oyeyemi noted.
A participant at the forum, Maximus Emeka, hailed the FRSC for organizing the event, saying it has added more value to public understanding of tyre hazards.
Mr. Emeka, a regional manager at one of the public transportation companies in the country, Peace Mass Transit, urged participants to change their daily attitude towards tyres.
“It’s not just about hearing, it’s about doing and changing their behaviour towards their tyres”, the transporter said. “It’s about implementation. There will be more value when people make good use of what they learnt from this forum”.
Mr. Emeka also pleaded with the FRSC to convene similar forums frequently, saying doing so would afford more Nigerians the opportunity to participate.
