21st March, 2017
Akin Kuponiyi
A Federal High Court, sitting in Lagos, southwest Nigeria on Tuesday granted bail to two Chinese and a Nigerian who were arraigned for allegedly importing sub-standard automobile tyres worth about N5 billion, in the sum of N10 million with two sureties each in like sum.
The accused are Taolung Shen, Xu Jing Yao and Chinedu Madubuike.
Others included in the charge are two limited liability companies, Sino Nigeria Limited and Nedeca International Limited.
When the charges were read and interpreted to the Chinese by one Fred Guichu Zhong, from the Chinese High Commission in Nigeria, the defendants pleaded not guilty. The Nigerian also pleaded not guilty.
The presiding judge, Mojisola Olatoregun, while ruling on the bail applications filed separately by the defence counsel, Victor Opara and Napoleon Nwachukwu, admitted the three accused persons to bail in the sum of N10 million each.
The two Chinese were also ordered to submit their international passports and residential permits to the court’s Deputy Chief Registrar .
The judge also ordered the two companies named in the charge to submit bond of N10 million each.
On the sureties to be provided by the defendants, the court stated that the two sureties for each defendant must not be a teacher, and must reside within the jurisdiction of the court. He or she must also show evidence of three years tax payment.
The court told counsel to the two Chinese, Barrister Victor Opara not to degrade himself by bringing professional sureties before the court.
Mr Opara commended the court for the ruling and promised not to disappoint the court.
The court has fixed May 15 for trial.
In the four-count charge filed before the court, the Federal Government of Nigeria accused the Chinese and their alleged Nigerian accomplice of conspiring “among themselves 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 defendants allegedly committed the offence sometime in February 2017.
The offence committed by the accused persons and the two companies 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.