The Nigeria Police Force (NPF) is collaborating with other agencies to ensure the security and safety of vehicular assets of citizens across the federation.
The Force Public Relations Officer, Assistant Commissioner of Police, ACP Olumuyiwa Adejobi gave the assurance while outlining the successes story of the Nigeria Police Force Central Motor Registration, ECMR with newsmen in Abuja
He explained that one of the objectives of the ECMR initiative of the NPF ” is to reduce the incidences of stolen vehicle and related crimes to the barest minimum”.
He pointed out that ” the manual CMR, which has been in existence for decades, was digitalised, and vehicle owners are enjoined to provide their vehicle information to the Police via https://cmris.npf.gov.ng portal and to also report stolen vehicles via https://reportcmr.npf.gov.ng portal.
The Force PRO noted that it was gladdening to state that vehicle owners were keying into these initiatives, as evidenced by the growing number of vehicles in the databases.
He said the first batch of 7 vehicles reported/flagged stolen on the ECMR platforms were referred for investigation out of which 3 have been detected/recovered.
He further revealed that the one stolen from Abuja was recovered in Ilorin, Kwara State, and brought back to Abuja over the weekend to be handed back to the rightful owner.
Speaking on how the recovery happen, he said, “the owner had reported the vehicle stolen on the Stolen Vehicle Portal and provided the details of the vehicle.
According to him, “The innocent buyer applied to obtain the CMR certificate, but the system triggered an alert that the vehicle had been reported/flagged stolen; this prompted a Police investigation that led to the recovery.”
He pointed out that it was interesting to observe that the stolen vehicle was re-registered twice after it was stolen by the criminals.
This, he said, was meant to completely eliminate any trace whatsoever of the vehicle, similar to money laundering.
The FPRO further said that the syndicate specializing in stealing vehicles had been burst and that one of the gang members had been arrested and would soon be charged in court as soon as all investigation activities had been duly tidied up.
On other Police Actions, he said, “Two weeks ago, the IGP directed immediate investigation to recover a second batch of 612 vehicles reported/flagged stolen on the ECMR platform.
According to him, “In the same vein, 1,610 vehicles with conflicting information have been referred for investigation.
“Meanwhile, a functionality that will assist citizens who are conducting due diligence checks to know the status of a vehicle before purchase will be deployed shortly.”
Speaking on expectations from Vehicle Owners, he said, “These are inherent benefits in supporting the Police to tackle crime and criminality by ensuring that you visit the website to obtain the CMR certificate. The Nigeria Police will seamlessly recover your vehicle if it is stolen”
