- SON Shuts Substandard LPG Cylinder Facilities
The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has shut some facilities used for the fabrication of suspected substandard liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cylinders in Onitsha, Anambra State.
Located on Bida Road in Onitsha, the LPG cylinder fabrication sites were filled with various sizes of cylinders including 3kg, 5kg, 6kg, 12.5 kg and 50 kg.
Its Director-General, Mr. Osita Aboloma, in a statement, explained that the standards enforcement activity was carried out by the agency’s Anambra State office in exercise of the agency’s mandate as prescribed in SON Act No. 14 of 2015.
The state Co-ordinator, Nwaoma Olujie said the fabrication sites were found lacking in basic requisite facilities for the manufacture of LPG cylinders such as shot blasting and metallising. Others are heat treatment furnace, tensile testing machine, spectrometer, burst testing machine and x-ray machines, among others.
Olujie described the cylinders as ‘time bombs’ and added that the fabricators went as far as printing SON quality sign on the finished products, thereby misleading the public.
The co-ordinator, who led the enforcement, said no arrests were made as the illegal producers all took to their heels on sighting the SON team.
Three lorry loads of suspected substandard LPG cylinders, welding machines, paint spraying machines, compressors and gauges etc. were evacuated from the three locations raided.
According to the statement, large quantities of petrol tanks and air tanks for pneumatic braking systems suspected to be used in the fabrication of the LPG cylinders were found at the sites, some of which were also evacuated.
“Samples of the LPG cylinders will be sent to the SON laboratory for tests and analysis to enable further action,” the statement said.
SON operatives had recently mopped up substandard LPG cylinders in Kano, Kaduna and Katsina states, which were all destroyed for recycling after Laboratory tests and analysis confirmed the substandard status.
The statement urged Nigerians to pay close attention to LPG cylinders quality status to forestall avoidable unpleasant consequences.
It also appealed to the general public to continue to provide useful information to regulatory and security agencies on suspected substandard products, with emphasis on those classified as life endangering.
