The Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) on Tuesday said it would
begin enforcement of the new drivers' licence and number plate on Aug
1.
The Lagos State Sector Commander, Mr Chidi Nkwonta, said that the
decision followed the new court judgment.
"This new judgment made it very clear that as from Aug. 1, FRSC should impound.
"So, Nigerians must discountenance that first misleading judgment and
take this one because we are going to continue enforcement as from
Aug. 1, 2014.
"We never asked anybody to stop (processing licences). Anybody who
stopped ab initio stopped at his own peril.
"Neither did the court ask anybody to stop, that judgment never said
anybody should stop.
"So anybody who did so did it at his own risk and the deadline was
supposed to be June 30.
"Now we have extended it to Aug. 1, because we needed to go on appeal
on the other matter.
"But right now, there is another judgment which says we can go on.
"So, while we are still waiting for the appeal we are going to go on
with this other judgment."
Justice Peter Umeadi of a Federal High Court in Anambra on June 30,
had ruled in a suit filed by Chief Ajefo Ekwo challenging FRSC's
powers to enforce new drivers' licence and number plate.
Umeadi said that the respondent's directive to change old drivers'
licence and number plates to new was legal, valid, subsisting and in
conformity with the FRSC's 2007 Act and the National Road Traffic
Regulations of 2012.
Nkwonta, however, said that the recent judgment had put aside the
earlier judgment of the Lagos High Court ruling that the corps had no
authority to produce and fix deadline for the documents.
The FRSC commander said that the earlier judgment was given in error
and the commission would stand by the new judgment while appealing
against the earlier judgment.
He said that the command had not failed to process the vehicle
documents for new applicants that patronised the commission after the
initial judgment.
Nkwonta said that all the registration centres and 18 additional work
stations in all parts of Lagos were functional and the network was
effective.
He said that the commission had improved in the processes as well as
working at weekends to make it easy for applicants.
Justice John Tsoho of the Federal High Court in Lagos on March 26
declared that the FRSC had no legal authority to impose new number
plates on motorists in the country.
The judge also held that "the ongoing exercise by the FRSC to replace
the old number plate with a new one is illegal and unconstitutional
because there is no law empowering it to carry out the exercise.''
Justice Tsoho delivered the judgment in a suit filed by a Lagos-based
lawyer, Mr Emmanuel Ofoegbu, against the FRSC.
In the suit, Ofoegbu had challenged the power of the commission to
impound vehicles of motorists who failed to acquire the new number
plates.
The plaintiff argued that there was no law validly made in accordance
with the constitution prohibiting the use of the old number plates.
Meanwhile, Justice Umeadi declared that FRSC has power to impound any
vehicle which fails to register for a new number plate and arrest any
motorist who fails to obtain the new drivers' licence.
He said that such offender should be prosecuted according to law as
from Aug.1. (NAN)
No comments:
Post a Comment