The Lagos State Sector Commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Kehinde Hamzat, has raised concerns about the rising use of fake number plates bearing labels such as the Presidency, Nigerian Youth Council (NYC), and National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) for criminal activities.
Hamzat disclosed this during an interview on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily.
He stated that say the abuse of these number plates is becoming a serious security threat.
According to him, criminals use fake plates bearing these tags to avoid police checks and commit crimes without being easily traced.
“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,” Hamzat explained.
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He disclosed that most of these plates are not registered in the national vehicle database.
Hamzat continued, ‘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.”
He added that the FRSC has launched a special operation to identify and impound vehicles with such fake plates, with plans to investigate and prosecute offenders.
The operation is part of the FRSC’s efforts to protect the integrity of the National Vehicle Identification Scheme (NVIS).
Recall that, The Corps Marshal Malam Shehu Mohammed directed officers to target vehicles carrying fake plates, especially those linked to NANS.
Tribune Online reports that in reaction to this directive, NANS threatened to shut down FRSC offices if their official vehicles are impounded.
