Standards Organisation of Nigeria (Son) has pledged to investigate the alleged importation of 3,190 units of a brand of tricycles called ATUL which were brought into the country as Keke Napep at the cost of Nl.4 billion. This was Son's response to a petition to the director general of the organisation, dated October 25, 2010 by Keke Owners & Riders Association. "We have received the petition in our Abuja office and we are putting machinery in place for a thorough investigation of the claims and all the actors' roles in the project," according to a spokesperson of Son. The document, signed by Adeola Adegbite, the association's general secretary, reads: "It has become extremely expedient for us to write the Standard Organisation of Nigeria to investigate the level of bad quality and poor standard of a brand of tricycles called ATUL worth Nl,435,500,000 which were brought into the country as Keke Napep by a company named Autobahn Techniques Ltd.  They were imported via a contract awarded the company by Napep to supply 4-stroke Piaggio brands of tricycle (as at time of signing of contract).
 "We raised the alarm to the government as an association upon whose shoulder rests the responsibility to defend and care for our members that instead of our members to make money through ATUL tricycles, great loss and indebtedness are recorded because the tricycles so supplied by Autobahn Techniques Limited could not work more than two months before they have are damaged and grounded."
On what made the tricycles substandard, the association further alleged: "Generally, the ATUL brand of tricycle has low quality factory materials, low quality wheel shaft and no genuine spare parts available. Above all, it has about two-month life span.
 "When we tried to relocate the engine, even as bad as it is, into the body of another brand of tricycle, it still did not work. We found out that the ATUl body is too heavy for the capacity of the engine to move. The body when broken cannot be mended because of its low quality fibre. It is evidently clear that ATUl is a wasted investment."
The association therefore urged Son to look critically into the issue with a view to find those who are privy to the deal and make them to face the wrath of the law.