Police to go after vehicles without registered number plates

Taiwo Jimoh

CP, Lagos State, Hakeem Odumosu

The Lagos State Police Command  said it has concluded plans to go after vehicles with unregistered number plates.

This was contained in a statement signed by the Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Bala Elkana. These number plates also include vehicles showing names, titles and positions of vehicle owners.

The Command said the owners of such vehicles had been given seven days ultimatum to comply with the instruction or face the law.

Elkana said: “The Command has given the owners of the vehicles seven days ultimatum in the state to register their vehicles or face the law. Also affected are vehicles with covered plate or defaced number plates, vehicles with fake numbers and vehicles without number plates, while vehicles with special inscriptions like ‘Chief' ‘Chairman’ ‘Ambassador’ ‘Baale' ‘Iya loja' ‘Sarki' are required by the law to register such customizse number plates. Escorts vehicles and bullion vans must also be registered. It is not enough to inscribe just the word ‘Escort’ or ‘Pilot ‘ as it is not sufficient enough to track such vehicle. Vehicles displayed for sale in various car stands must have the dealer’s sticker conspicuously pasted for easy identification.”

Elkana further stated that the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu, has set up a special operation to clampdown on violators of the Lagos State Traffic Laws and to embark on massive enforcement at the expiration of the seven days ultimatum.

Elkana further noted: “The ultimatum would start from January 6, while massive clampdown on unregistered vehicles would continue until sanity is restored to our roads. The enforcement becomes necessary considering the fact that criminal elements in recent past have devised means of operating with such vehicles to attack unsuspecting members of the public without any trace.

“An example was an accident that occurred at Allen Avenue, Ikeja where an operator of Bureau De Change was attacked, robbed and murdered by a criminal gang that used an unregistered vehicle, making it difficult for detectives to track the vehicle.  Section 4(1) of the Road Traffic Act, Cap 548 prohibited the use of unregistered, unlicensed and unmarked vehicles. Any person who forges or fraudulently defaces, alters, mutilates or adds anything to a license or identification mark or a license belonging to another vehicle is guilty of an offence under Section 32 of the Act. See also the provisions of Lagos State Traffic Law for various offences.”