Association raises alarm over influx of sub-standard gas cylinders to Nigerian market

The Liquefied Petroleum Gas Retailers Association (LPGRA), NUPENG Branch, on Wednesday expressed concern over the influx of sub-standard gas cylinders to the Nigerian market.

The Secretary of the association, Mr Monday Nwatu, expressed the concern in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Wednesday.

He, therefore, spoke of the need to take urgent steps to address the situation.

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“Some of the cylinders we have in the market are substandard.

“There is no longer regulation in terms of importation (of the cylinders). Anybody can go to China and India and bring in cylinders.

“These are the ones you see in the market that have no name, no SON logo to show that they have been certified for use.

“And the implication is that you begin to notice rust on the body of some of these cylinders in less than a year

“We do not have companies producing cylinders in the country; we import.

“Even the few ones that we have, this issue of power outage makes their production standard not to be enough and also it affects the price of cylinders.

“So, at the end the day, it still comes down to buying the only alternative one, which is the fake ones.

“The danger this is posing in Nigeria generally is that every substandard cylinder is more dangerous than Boko Haram (insurgency).

“Yes, because the explosion of a substandard gas cylinder can to cause massive havoc.’’