Road Safety
The road is central in combating crime. They are the main access criminals use for kidnapping, terrorism, movement of stolen goods or drugs among other criminal activities. This is why all vehicles are required by law to carry number plates as key identifiers.
Best practice apparatus such as automatic number plate recognition and road cameras which are absent in most of our roads, hinders tracking suspects, stolen vehicles and movements. The road is therefore, not just a path of travel, but a frontline in the battle for safety and security against all crimes.
I once wrote on number plates. One was titled, ‘Rotational Number Plates’. The second was captioned, ‘The criminality of number plates’, while the last was, ‘Still on number plates. I am compelled today to shed light on this safety and security issue that should concern not just Agencies such as the Federal Road Safety Corps, and the Nigerian Police but other Agencies, as well as the average Nigerian.
In the last few weeks, videos of rotational number plates have been circulated on WhatsApp platforms that I belong to, with specific appeals to security Agencies to step up their efforts. I won’t deny that there are ongoing interventions to arrest the drift, but more is required from the Agencies who are no doubt handicapped by the absence of the needed infrastructure.
This is why governments at all levels whose responsibility the protection of citizens lies, need to put the needed infrastructure to ease enforcement. The needed infrastructures such as currently exist in Lagos State will shift focus from analogue enforcement to fully driven technology enforcement. Apart from deterring culprits, this upgrade will drive down avoidable road traffic crashes even among chronic deviants as well as the high and mighty
For the records, number plate infraction is illegal. It is also criminal. According to my legal tutor, obscuring a number plate or driving a vehicle without any, amounts to perverting justice. When I wrote on this same topic, I said to you that a number plate identifies a vehicle and its owner.
Whether in developed countries or climes such as Nigeria, the number plates on each vehicle must show the correct registration number. It is therefore illegal for you to rearrange letters or numbers, or alter them, making them hard to read.
Such an act which is deemed criminal could result in a fine of up to £1,000, in the case of the United Kingdom and this will cause your vehicle to fail the Ministry of Transport (MOT) test. In Nigeria, number plate violation is just N3,000, which is why I hope a review will jerk up the cost to deter defaulters.
While the Corps daily battles known number plate infractions, there is a new entrant to number plate violation. I am talking about the rotational number plate which the Corps says is also illegal. When I checked to see if rotational number plates were legal in any part of the world, the result was negative. My findings show that using a rotating plate or ‘’stealth’’ frame to obscure a number plate to avoid fines or parking fees is ‘’tantamount to perverting the course of justice’’, according to a lawyer.
When sought for clarification, the Corps said that the FRSC does not produce rotational number plates. The Agency further noted that the number plates are unauthorized and only intended for sinister motives. The FRSC cited the trending rotational number plate KUJ-304BV, which when automatically flipped, carries a number tagged presidency with the following details, 01B-266FG.FRSC. The Corps further clarified that FRSC does not produce a number plate with such double features, stressing that only one number can be assigned to one vehicle and its owner at the same time.
Rotational number plates are not the only illegal act committed by motorists. Daily, I receive calls, text messages, and emails from motorists seeking clarification on the position of the law concerning the indiscriminate removal of vehicle number plates by law enforcement agents.
Some of these callers, often express disgust over these actions described by some as annoying. I recall vividly the most recent call from an old classmate and friend who could not hold back his frustration while narrating his frustrating experience to me.
According to Femi Richards (not real name), he said he was driving along the Abuja-Lokoja corridor when he was pulled over by a law enforcement operative for certain offenses. After a series of questions on certain infractions, one of the operatives walked away only to appear with a screwdriver which he used to unscrew the vehicle number plates, and then asked him to report to the office the next day.
A second caller who claimed to reside in the Federal Capital Territory was not as lucky as Femi as his rear vehicle number plate was forcefully removed with bare hands. This is criminal and not backed by any law in the land. It is similar to stripping/tearing off a female’s dress and disregarding her right to her privacy, all in the name of enforcing the law.
What does the law say? For emphasis and clarity, it is illegal for any law enforcement operative to engage in the removal/confiscation of number plates from a vehicle. If you are in doubt, please read the clarification by the Federal Road Safety Corps and I do hope that road users would take, according to my learned friend, judicial notice of the clarification.
For appropriate guidance, the following provisions of the law are instructive: Section 10(4)(h) of the FRSC (Establishment) Act, 2007 states: that it’s an offence to be on the road without a valid vehicle license or identification mark being displayed. Similarly, Section 10(4)(s) of the Act makes failure to display number plates on vehicles an offense.
The National Road Traffic Regulations (NRTR) 2012 also provide as follows: Section 36(NRTR) 2012 makes it mandatory for all private and commercial vehicles to have number plates which shall be fixed on them in a manner as not to be easily detachable. Failure to comply amounts to a contravention of the law.
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