At least 46 dealers of motorcycles are currently being investigated for allegedly selling substandard 200cc motorbike to unsuspecting buyers.
The Lagos State Commissioner for Transportation, Mr. Kayode Opeifa, stated this in an interview with our correspondent in Lagos on Monday.
He said the matter with relevant documents had been referred to the police for proper investigation.
Although the suspects have offices in different parts of Lagos, an umbrella body for companies operating in the state, the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, says they are not its members.
The Lagos State Government last year introduced a new traffic law, restricting the operation of commercial motorcycles to inner roads.
It also prohibited the use of motorbikes below 200cc capacity on major roads by courier service operators and companies’ dispatch riders.
Although the LCCI had appealed to the state government on behalf of its members for a downward review of the engine capacity, claiming that it was expensive and not available, the government had insisted the 200cc motorbikes were available and would not budge.
Some firms and individuals, in an attempt to comply with the provisions of the traffic law concerning the 200cc motorbikes, had allegedly purchased machines, which were below standards.
They were said to have approached the dealers for the 200cc motorbikes but ended up buying machines that were below that capacity.
Going by the receipts issued by the dealers, some of which were obtained on Monday by our correspondent, the unsuspecting buyers paid for the 200cc engine capacity but got something less.
Opeifa explained that 200cc inscription was either carefully engraved on the body of the motorbikes or written on a sticker pasted on each motorcycle to deceive the buyer.
He accused the dealers of taking the advantage of the situation to dupe members of the public.
The commissioner noted that the efforts taken by such dealers to bring in motorbikes of less capacity and manipulate the gullible buyers could have been channelled towards importing the recommended products.
Apart from the police, he said the matter had been reported to the Standards Organisations of Nigeria, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria and the state Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice.
But the Director-General, LCCI, Mr. Muda Yusuf, defended the action of the dealers, saying many of them were not aware the engine capacity was below 200cc.
“Many of them were unaware that they were supplied motorcycles of less than 200cc before selling them; this was because of the 200cc labels on them,” the DG stated, in a letter on the issue.
He also said, “The mistake, according to them, came from the importers whose names were not disclosed. They were equally unhappy with the situation because of the integrity implications (to them).”
But the LCCI boss insisted in the letter addressed to the State House of Assembly that the 200cc brand was not readily available and pleaded with the state government to consider a lower engine capacity option such as 125cc or160cc.
He stated, “The 200 cc capacity motorcycles are generally not available in the country as they are in the range of power bikes, not commonly used for mail delivery and other commercial purposes. This scarcity has created room for all manner of malpractices including falsification and relabeling of lower capacity motorbikes as 200cc and above.
“The cost of a motorcycle of 200cc capacity and above, where available, is in the region of N500,000 to N1m, depending on the brand. This implies that for a firm that needs to replace 10 of the motorcycles, a minimum of N5m to N10m will be required. Many courier companies have an upwards of 50 motorcycles.”
Yusuf noted that small players in the sector could be thrown out of business as such financial commitment was a big drain on the resources of small courier companies with a low margin profit.
Opeifa, however, said the state government would not rescind its decision on the 200cc, arguing that many had complied with the directive.
Besides, he stressed that the recommended motorbikes were available, adding that the 200cc was approved based on the moderate emission level of the machine.
Opeifa said, “The 200cc motorbikes are available. Only that their members have chosen a short cut. What LCCI needs to do is to investigate whether it was that some people had used the same energy needed to import the 200cc motorbikes to bring in substandard ones.
“Some people brought in the recommended motorbikes. What their members have done was to buy cheaper bikes than to go for the recommended one.
“The regulation has to do with emission control. And recently NESRA had also called for the ban of motorcycles because of the pollution to the environment.”
He said the other reason for insisting on high capacity motorbikes was safety, adding that they could only be allowed to go on the highway and bridges with upgraded motorbikes.
Opeifa said LCCI should be more concerned about the health and safety of the people.
“The cost of enforcement by government is much more than the cost of purchasing the right motorbikes that they are complaining about; it cost government three times what all of them will spend; also there are 3,000 couriers firms but there are over 400,000 dispatch riders that don’t belong to courter companies. So, should will exempt the 3,000 and punish the 4,000 people?”
Another contentious area is the issue of safety. For instance, while Yusuf claimed the 200cc motorbikes came with new retraining challenges for the riders with a higher risk of accidents, Opeifa said it was introduced to control rate of accident. In fact, the commissioner said the latest accident statistics showed zero okada-related death was recorded in February in Lagos.