By Sarah NEGEDU
Henceforth, traffic offenders will be booked electronically and served with tickets, as the Directorate of Road Traffic Services, DRTS, has commenced e-ticketing and central booking of traffic offenders in the Federal Capital Territory.
Director of service, Dr Abdul-Lateef Bello, who disclosed this after flagging off the booking system on Monday, said this was in compliance with the FCT Transportation Secretariat’s strategy of e-enforcement and penalty system.
Bello warned that offenders who fail to pay the fines within seven days, will have their vehicles impounded.
The director who noted there are vulnerable areas in the city that have been provided with both manned and unmanned devices that will be recording issues of traffic violations also stated that the service is seeking approval of the authority whether to now ask violators to pay in arrears or to give approval for a certain timeline for DRTS to begin to effect fines and payments.
He said, “Henceforth, all violators of traffic issues will now be booked electronically and they will be served with their tickets for seven days. If they fail to pay the fine, then the vehicle will be impounded.”
“You don’t have to have cameras in all the traffic lights. But there are areas, vulnerable areas in the city that have been provided both man and unmanned devices that will be recording issues of traffic violations. But for traffic lights, that particular offence of red violation is being processed.
“At the moment, we are working with the service provider and we have to seek the approval of the authority whether to now ask violators to now pay in arrears or to give approval for a certain timeline for us to begin to effect fines and payments. That’s for traffic lights or red light violation.
“For all other traffic violations like driving against traffic, not renewing your vehicle license when it’s appropriate and due, not parking in the right or authorized spaces, driving rickety vehicles within the city, all those offences will now be booked centrally and offenders will be made to pay within seven days before your vehicle will be impounded if you fail to do that.”
When asked if the court injunction that stops VIO from impounding vehicles on Abuja roads has been vacated, Bello said, “That has been appealed long ago, and you know what that means. But for us, we have decided to go back and then renew and then rework our own system of enforcement, and for the last three months we have been working on that.
“We’ve had series of retreats in trying to educate our members on the use of these devices. That’s exactly the reason why we have not been on the road impounding and we have left that to the tax force.
“But as our core mandate and as the law provides, ’empower the Honourable Minister to make regulations on transport issues’ and we have been saddled with that responsibility to carry out that mandate.
“We are back on the road and we will now be impounding vehicles only when you fail to pay your fines within seven days. The DRTS will not be stopping vehicles at random now because the devices will select those that are not adequately in line with the position of law, and those are the ones we will be dealing with henceforth”.
