The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) in Lagos State has revealed that counterfeit number plates, often bearing the insignia of esteemed organisations like the Presidency, the Nigerian Youth Council (NYC), and the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), are being widely used for nefarious activities.
Kehinde Hamzat, the Lagos State Sector Commander, explained that the FRSC has launched a nationwide crackdown to tackle this issue.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, Mr Hamzat highlighted the problem: “We think that most of these number plates are labelled presidency, NYC, NANS and some others, knowing fully well that these are established institutions that probably law enforcement agents wouldn’t want to disturb. We now discover that they use all these things to perpetuate evils, and it’s becoming a security threat to the country.”
He further explained the difficulty in tracing vehicles with these fake plates: “If you check these numbers on the database, you’ll discover they are not anywhere. So when they misbehave, you start tracing the vehicle you can’t identify.”
We are trying to pick as many of them as possible to investigate and prosecute them appropriately.”
This initiative forms part of the FRSC’s ongoing efforts to uphold the National Vehicle Identification Scheme (NVIS). Recently, the Corps Marshal, Malam Shehu Mohammed, instructed officers to impound vehicles linked to NANS.
This directive, however, has been met with resistance, with NANS threatening to close down FRSC offices nationwide if the order is enforced.
