Police give ultimatum on use of vehicles with covered, defaced, fake plate numbers

The Lagos State Police Command has issued a seven-day ultimatum to owners and operators of unregistered vehicles in Lagos State to register their vehicles or face the full weight of the law.

Also affected are vehicles with covered or defaced plate numbers, vehicles with fake plate numbers and vehicles without plate numbers.

A statement by the spokesman of the Command, DSP Bala Elkana, said: “Users of plate numbers with special inscriptions like ‘Chief’ ‘Chairman’ ‘Ambassador’ ‘Baale’ ‘Iya loja’ ‘Sarki’ or bearing personal name among others are required by law to register such customized plate numbers.

Escorts vehicles and bullion vans must also be registered, saying ” 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 stand must have the dealer’s sticker conspicuously pasted for easy identification.”

Elkana said the Commissioner, Lagos State Police Command, Hakeem Odumosu, has set up a Special Operations to clampdown on violators of traffic laws and embark on massive enforcement at the expiration of the seven days ultimatum.

He said the grace period will be over by 11.59pm on January 12, 2020, adding: “The massive clampdown begins on 13th January, 2020 until sanity is restored to our roads. This enforcement becomes necessary considering the fact that criminal elements in recent past have devised a means of operating with such vehicles to attack unsuspecting members of the public without any trace. A recent example was a case that occurred at Allen Avenue, Ikeja, where an operator of a 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.

“For the avoidance of doubt, 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 uses on one vehicle a license or identification mark 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.

“Traffic violators will instantly be arraigned before Lagos State Special Offences Mobile Court.”