By Fredrick Wright
THELagos State Corps Commander, Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Mr Olusegun Ogungbemide, has urged motorists to take adequate care of their vehicle number plates, noting that there are several offences associated with abuse of the plates.
Ogungbemide, who gave the advice in Lagos on Tuesday, advised motorists to always use water and soap and avoid using hard chemicals and brush in washing the number plate, to prevent it from fading.
The FRSC official said the offence of faded number plate had been in the FRSC system since inception, captured under number plate violation.
“There are so many offences rated under the number plate violation such as broken number plate, faded number plate, covered number plate, non use of number plate, and we have misuse of number plate.
“The misuse of number plate means that one is using private number plate for commercial.
“These are the categories of offences fall within this violation.
“The one that is generating a lot of interest now is the faded, and the rationale behind this action is that when you have a faded number plate, it has both moral and security implications.
“Moral in the sense that, if in the course of your driving you happen to hit somebody and you escape, how do you expect the law enforcement agency to get the number plate of the vehicle that absconds from that point?
“Especially in the situation of hit and run, because the act says the number plate should be visible, by 60 metres distance. If your number is faded, there is no way we can record that.”
Ogungbemide said that so many people had used faded number plate to perpetrate atrocities, and that became an issue while trying to identify such vehicles.
The Corps Commander said that due to misuse of number plate, government made the decision that if it fades, the owner should replace it immediately.
He said that motorists should quickly inform the authority whenever they discovered any defect on their number plates, for necessary replacement.
He counseled against use of hard brush or chemicals in washing number plates.
Ogungbemide said that he had been using his number plate for the past 10 years and it was still intact.
According to him, it takes two weeks to process a number plate.
He emphasised that there was no limit in the duration of number plate usage, as long as it had no defect.
The corps commander said that there were guidelines on the issuance of new number plates, and urged motorists to keep to them.
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