Road Safety Number Plate Infraction
Hope Eghagha is a friend. He is also my former Director. And a Professor. Not your oluwole Professor. So, we all call him Prof because he is a Professor and a good one for that matter even though I am not competent or qualified to assess his academic accomplishment. Way back at the University of Lagos, I recall a heated but friendly argument between Prof, Cyril Obi, another Prof, as well as my humble self.
The argument was not over sharing of money accrued from any source. It was not over a landed property. It was over a planned production of Athol Fugard’s, Sizwe Bansi is Dead, a production which remains my best, if you ask me. Prof’s displeasure was over the failure of Prof CY and my humble self to get our lines for a production that was meant to be staged in two weeks.
The result of that argument was that Prof gave up on us as he couldn’t fathom how nonprofessionals like us in Theatre15, our drama club, could put together our acts in just two weeks. The result was that Segun Ojewuyi, now a Professor, took over the directorship. To God’s glory, despite reservations expressed by other club members, we successfully put up a yeoman show described by a late Professor of English as one of the best he had seen, even better than a similar production put together by professionals in the United Kingdom.
Before you mistake me for doing a post-mortem on our days at the University of Lagos, please kindly hold your peace. Prof, actually called me last Saturday and after pleasantries lamented on the failure of officials to get his vehicle properly uploaded to guard against theft or any criminal activity. Prof’s call jolted me on the need to run a piece I once did some time in 2022.
The urge to do so was further fast-tracked by a media report accredited to the Commissioner of Police in charge of the Federal Capital Territory on a proposed clampdown on vehicles without number plates. As part of efforts to curb rising cases of crime in the seat of government. He expressed concern on how people drive with one number plate or no number plate vehicles at all in the city of government.
As well as car dealers beyond the stipulated time which he said is 6.30 pm. He quoted section 25(5) of the Federal Capital Territory Road Transport Regulation Act,2005. The Police chief recalled several cases of armed robberies, popularly known as one chance mostly associated with vehicles with one number plate or none at all. The super cop has therefore directed that such vehicles should be impounded, the driver arrested, and prosecuted accordingly. The move also targets car dealers.
I call him Senior Oduniyi. He was my senior at CMS Grammar School Bariga, Lagos. Senior Oduniyi was the first to alert me on the trending video. He was eager to know what a rotational number plate was. Bisi Kazeem, the spokesperson for the Federal Road Safety Corps, in a press statement provided what Senior Oduniyi and others needed. I couldn’t treat this subject last week. Today, I hope my piece will refresh our minds, especially in the face of the current security challenges and the need to be safety and security conscious.
Globally, number the number plate is vital in identification of vehicles for security reasons, either in the face of crime or road traffic crashes. In the United Kingdom where there is rising number plate crime, authorities regularly warn motorists to patronize only reputable registered vendors. To demonstrate this claim further, it was revealed that there were 9,031 illegal number plate offences in 2017 in the UK.
The owners, according to the report, either drove or kept a vehicle with obscured plates or irregular license plates. Available data from the UK police further revealed that number plate crime rose by 18 per cent in 2017 from 7,876 illegal plates in 2016. In Nigeria, there are cases of number plate violations ranging from use of plastic, broken or one number plate instead of two or three depending on the category of the vehicle. The use of defaced number plate or outright non registration of a vehicle is equally captured as a number plate registration. Meanwhile, authorities daily battle with the illegal transfers of number plates or the use of unauthorized number plates for ulterior motives.
Number plates which identify a vehicle and its owner whether in the developed clime or in Nigeria 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 could result in a fine of up to £1,000, which is over N700,000, in the case of the UK and this will cause your vehicle to fail the MOT test. In Nigeria number plate violation is just N3,000, which is why I am championing for a review to deter defaulters.
