2 Chinese, Nigerian remanded for importing N5b fake tyres

One month after they were nabbed by security agents for allegedly importing sub-standard automobile tyres worth about N5 billion into the country, a Federal High Court, Lagos, on Monday, ordered the remand of two Chinese citizens and a Nigerian who were docked before it.

Justice Mojisola Olatoregun made the remand order shortly after the accused were arraigned before her on four counts. Those arraigned are Taolung Shen, Xu Jing Yao and Chinedu Madubuike. Others included in the charge are two companies, Sino Nigeria Limited and Nedeca International Limited.

They were arraigned by the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice.
In the four-count charges, the Federal Government accused the Chinese and their alleged accomplices of conspiring “among yourselves to import tyres, which did not meet the relevant Nigeria industrial standards.”

The accused persons were said to have allegedly stuffed various sizes of tyres into one another, an act, the Federal Government said, constituted a danger to the Nigerian populace.

The offence, the prosecuting counsel for the AGF, Mr. Yusuff Lawan said, is contrary to and punishable under Section 26 (2)(b)(iii) of the Standards Organisation Act No. 14, 2015 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004.

However, when the charges were read and interpreted to the two Chinese citizens by one Fred Guichu Zhong, from the Chinese High Commission in Nigeria, the defendants pleaded not guilty.

Their Nigerian co-defendant equally pleaded not guilty. Following their plea, the prosecutor, Lawan, urged Justice Olatoregun to fix a date for commencement of trial, adding that the prosecution had four witnesses to call to prove the charges. But lawyer to the two Chinese, informed the court of a pending bail applications for his clients.

He said the applications were separately supported with 14 paragraphs, written addresses and urged the court to adopt same as his argument.

In the same vein, lawyer to Madubuike, the fifth defendant in the charge, Napoleon Nwachukwu, urged the court to grant his client bail in the most liberal term. Responding, the prosecutor said he had filed counter affidavits to the bail applications.

Consequently, Justice Olatoregun adjourned till today (Tuesday) for ruling on the bail applications. She however, ordered that the defendants should be remanded in prison’s custody.