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The Lagos State Police Command, on Monday said it will prosecute anyone who fails to register their vehicles before the end of the seven-day ultimatum issued by the command.
The Commissioner of Police(CP) in the state, Hakeem Odumosu, had last week given a seven-day ultimatum to owners of unregistered vehicles in the state to comply with the law.
According to a statement by the command’s spokesperson, Bala Elkana, the police said the ultimatum starts today(Monday) and ends by 11:59 pm on Sunday, January 12.
“The Lagos State Police Command has issued a seven-day ultimatum to owners and operators of unregistered vehicles in Lagos State to register their vehicles or face the full weight of the law.
“Also affected are vehicles with covered or defaced number plates, vehicles with fake number plates and vehicles without number plates.
“Users of number plates with special inscriptions like ‘Chief’, ‘Chairman’, ‘Ambassador’, ‘Baale’, ‘Iyaloja’, ‘Sarki’, or bearing personal names, among others, are required by law to register such customised number plates. Escort vehicles and bullion vans must also be registered. It is not enough to inscribe just the word: ‘Escort’ or ‘Pilot’ as it is not sufficient enough to track such vehicles.
“Vehicles displayed for sale in various car marts must have the dealers’ stickers conspicuously pasted for easy identification.
“The Commissioner of Police has set up a special operation to clamp down on violators of traffic laws and to embark on massive enforcement at the expiration of the seven-day ultimatum.
“This enforcement becomes necessary considering the fact that criminal elements in the recent past have devised a means of operating with such vehicles to attack unsuspecting members of the public without any trace.
“A recent example was a case that occurred on Allen Avenue, Ikeja, where an operator of a Bureau de Change was attacked, robbed and murdered by a criminal gang that used an unregistered vehicle, making it difficult for detectives to track the vehicle.
“For the avoidance of doubt, Section 4 (1) of the Road Traffic Act, Cap 548, prohibited the use of unregistered, unlicensed and unmarked vehicles. Any person, who forges or fraudulently defaces, alters, mutilates or adds anything to a licence or identification mark, or uses on their vehicle a licence or identification mark belonging to another vehicle, is guilty of an offence under Section 32 of the Act,” Elkana said.