By Sarah NEGEDU
Residents of the Federal Capital Territory have welcomed the recent ruling by a Federal High Court restraining road safety officers from impounding vehicles with faded number plates or imposing penalties on their owners.
The court sitting in Lagos state on Friday, ruled that it was no longer a crime to drive around with faded number plates as the responsibility for ensuring durable number plates lies solely with its producer.
This decision followed a suit filed against the Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, by a lawyer, Chinwike Ezebube, on 13 February 2024.
The Judge, Akintayo Aluko, in his ruling maintained that the sole designer and producer of number plates in Nigeria, bears full responsibility for their durability. Consequently, the agency cannot justifiably impose penalties on vehicle owners for issues arising from the substandard quality of the number plates.
The news was well received by residents of the nation’s capital who claim that the previous law was unfair since car owners have little or no control over the lifespan of the plates.
An Uber driver, John Shamaki said he had been thinking of abandoning the business due to the harassment he faced with road safety and VIO officers.
“The ruling is a welcome development and shows that the judiciary is truly the hope of the common man. It has been a terrible experience for me because VIO and road safety officers have stopped me several times to ask me to change my number plate. Something I didn’t produce myself, yet you book it as an offence.
“We can’t wait for the implementation of that ruling in Abuja because it’s unfair to ask drivers to pay for what they have no control over. I almost abandoned my Uber business because of that harassment but with this ruling, I will confidently hit the roads tomorrow.”
A civil servant who simply gave his name as Mr. Ojomaje, is optimistic that the development will bring to an end the undue harassment and intimidation car owners in the FCT suffer from FRSC officials and other road traffic agencies.
Ojomaje who recounted a personal experience he had with VIO officers said, “My plate numbers was forcefully removed by VIO because they claimed it was faded. I was just about to make the turn to the Federal Secretariat when I was stopped by a VIO, he asked for my driver’s license and other documents.
“While that one was going through my papers, his other colleague forcefully pulled off my plate number because he thought I would move if the traffic light changed to green. All my papers were intact but they booked me to go get a new number plate, something that will still fade if they don’t make quality ones.”
However, while passing down his ruling, Justice Akintayo Aluko, agreed with the plaintiff.
He held that “while the defendant cannot criminalise the use of faded vehicle number plates, the plaintiff has a duty to approach the defendant for a replacement of his faded vehicle number plate upon payment of the requisite fees for that purpose.”
He added, “By way of conclusion, I hold the view that the defendant cannot criminalise the use of faded vehicle number plate and has no power to impose a fine on the plaintiff for using faded vehicle number plate or impound the plaintiff’s vehicle on such grounds without the order of a court of competent jurisdiction.”
He also restrained the FRSC from declaring it an offence to drive with a faded vehicle number plate.
“An order of the honourable court restricting the Federal Road Safety Commission, FRSC, from imposing any fine or punishment on the plaintiff for driving with a faded vehicle number plate is granted.
The plaintiff, Chinwike Ezebube, had asked the court to determine “whether the defendant, pursuant to Section 5 (g) and Section 10 (3)(f) of the Federal Road Safety Commission Act 2007 being the sole designer and producer of vehicle number plates in Nigeria, is not absolutely responsible for the quality and durability of the vehicle number plates as are produced by it?”
He also urged the court to determine if the defendant (FRSC) can make it an offence and impose a penalty against him or other Nigerians for driving a vehicle with faded vehicle number plates due to poor quality production as designed and produced by the defendant?
He prayed the court to order the FRSC to replace faded number plates at no cost due to their poor quality manufacturing.
FRSC’s lawyer, B.O Nnamani, opposed the suit in a counter-affidavit, urging the court to dismiss.
The court, however, upheld the plaintiff’s case in its Friday’s judgement.
The latest judgment is the second ruling against traffic agencies. Recall that on October 3, 2024, the Federal High Court in Abuja, ruled that the Vehicle Inspection Office was not legally authorized to stop, impound, or fine vehicles. The court also barred the VIO from confiscating vehicles.
Justice Evelyn Maha’s ruling was in response to a lawsuit filed by human rights activist Abubakar Marshal.
The lawsuit argued that the VIO’s actions violated motorists’ rights, including freedom of movement, presumption of innocence, and property rights.
