The recent pronouncement of the Federal Government banning the use of vehicles with tinted glasses on the nation’s roads seems to catch some vehicle owners off guard. Some had their vehicles either impounded or the tints on them removed forcefully, while others spent days in police detention. EMMANUEL ADENIYI, in this report, writes on the pronouncement and ripples it has generated so far.
THE vehicle was a 2011 Chevrolet Equinox four-wheel drive with a foreign number, probably smuggled into the country, judging from the streaks that dotted the right side of the sport utility vehicle (suv).
Apart from the streaks, every other thing about the ‘Chevrolet wonder’ was in a perfect condition.It moved gracefully on the road, while its four tyres rolled on the dark asphalt overlay of Lokoja-Abuja Expressway smoothly, as though the overlay and the tyres were communing together.
The suv, which was coming from the Abuja end of the highway, was later parked at the popular Felele junction in Lokoja, Kogi State capital, only for a middle-aged man to roll down the jeep’s window and beckon on a recharge card seller to come.
All the jeep’s glasses, except the middle part of its windscreen, were heavily coated with dark tints, making it difficult for the occupants of the vehicle to be seen.
Whether the occupants of the vehicle could see people outside from within remains dicey, as they appeared to have shut themselves out of the outside world, though the middle-aged driver appeared indifferent about the happenings on the outside world from the way he rolled down the jeep’s window to buy recharge cards.
A number of vehicles, heavily tinted, still ply Nigeria’s roads unhindered, giving an impression that the recent Federal Government’s directive, calling on motor vehicle owners, whose vehicle glasses are tinted to either remove the tint or take their vehicles off the road, is not taken seriously.
When Sunday Tribune went round some major cities in the country, it was discovered that despite the clamp down on the owners of vehicles with tinted glasses, some individuals still go about in theirs as though the directive exempted them.
It would be recalled that the Minister of Police Affairs, Mr. Humphrey Abah, had in February this year, directed an enforcement of an extant law prohibiting the use of tinted glasses on motor vehicles to curb the nefarious activities of criminals who often hide behind tinted glasses to convey arms and ammunition or possibly hide their stolen items.
The ban, according to the minister, was part of security measures to protect lives and property, especially as the nation goes to polls and to assist the police as well as other security agencies in the country to curb bombings and other acts of terrorism.
The Force Public Relations Officer (FPRO), Olusola Amore, was also reported to have listed on a radio programme those exempted from the ban. The FPRO said the president, vice president, Senate president and his deputy, the Senate majority leader, the speaker of the House of Representatives and his deputy as well as governors and their deputies, were the people exempted from the use of tints on their vehicles, adding a caveat that any police officer found escorting a vehicle with tinted glasses would be demoted by a rank.
Though the Minister of Police Affairs, Humphrey Abah, had in a press conference, exempted vehicles with factory-fitted tinted glasses and similarly revoked the earlier permits granted individuals that had tints on their vehicles, some security experts, who spoke with Sunday Tribune, however, said the implementation of the law banning the use of tinted glasses in the country was ill timed.
A Lokoja-based security expert, who recently retired from the Nigeria Police, Mr. Suday Yusuff, cited late implementation, problem of continuity and haphazard implementation of laws as some of the inconsistencies characterising the Federal Government’s directive on the use of tinted glasses.
He noted that there was an extant law coded Motor Vehicles (Prohibited of Tinted Glass) Act of 1991 and criticised hurried implementation of the act at this time, wondering why it took the Federal Government about 20 years to implement the law and discourage the use of tinted glasses, right-hand vehicles and covering of plate numbers by motorists in the country.
Another high-ranking pundit on security matters confided in Sunday Tribune that the belated directive would not stand the test of time, since most of the people using tints on the glasses of their vehicles are highly placed individuals in the country.
“The government encourages culture of impunity in Nigeria. Important persons affected by the directive will not allow it to work. The government’s pronouncement on vehicles with tinted glasses was hurriedly given to cater for the exigencies of elections, in view of the incessant bomb blasts and violence rocking the nation. Wait till the end of the elections, you will see that the police would have reneged. They can’t sustain it,’’ the security expert said.
Already on the streets of Lagos, Abuja, Ibadan, Port Harcourt and Lokoja, policemen have since February 28 been implementing the directive, though Sunday Tribune learnt that the implementation has been more effective in some places than others. Allegations of police extortion and manhandling of vehicle owners have also trailed the implementation, since it started barely two months ago.
A banker, Paul Onoriode, told Sunday Tribune in Lokoja, that his Honda Accord having tinted glass had been in a police custody since it was seized three weeks ago. He said he had not been able to raise N150,000 charged by the police to effect the release of the car, noting that some owners of vehicles with tinted glasses were even locked up early last month for putting their vehicles on the road.
Kunle Ogunaike, a businessman in Ibadan, corroborated Paul’s claim. He alleged that the police had seized the opportunity to extort money from him and others.
According to him, he had obtained a permit for his Nissan Toyota prior to the Federal Government’s pronouncement, yet the car was impounded in Lagos two weekends ago when he travelled there to visit his ailing father. “Policemen accosted me along Isolo-Ikotun road and pulled me out of the car. You would think we had had a fight before with the way I was treated.
"When I showed them the permit I obtained earlier this year, they collected it, inspected it and shoved it aside. They told me that all permits given before February 28 had been revoked and mine was not an exception. I watched helplessly as my car was driven away and I was taken to a police station around Isolo,” the businessman narrated.
He disclosed that the situation had forced many owners of tinted glass vehicles to keep them at home, in spite of having valid permits, adding that he paid N25,000 before he was issued with a permit, which was said to have been revoked.
While speaking with Sunday Tribune in his office, the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Oyo State Command, Mr Ajimuda Olatunji, a superintendent of police, denied the allegation that the police were extorting money from vehicle owners.
He said the ban on the use of tinted glasses on vehicles was a crime prevention strategy, noting that criminals often use such vehicles to perpetrate crimes while most accidents, according to him, were caused by such vehicles since their drivers would not be able to see very well.
“The report we have received so far has shown that people have been complying with the directive. Obtaining permits for tinted glasses is free. The process is done in a way that whoever that needs it will apply through the Commissioner of Police to the Inspector General of Police, nobody collects any kobo for that. It is free,” Mr Ajimuda stressed.
While speaking with Sunday Tribune on the ban, Barrister Ibrahim Olaifa, said the motor vehicle act of 1991 actually frowns at the use of tints on the glasses of vehicles, citing security reasons.
According to him, the act forbids "any glass fitted on motor vehicle to be tinted or shaded or coloured lightly or thickly; or darkened; or treated in any other way.... so that the persons or objects in the motor vehicle are rendered obscured or invincible."
Barrister Olaifa said that the directive banning the use of tinted glasses on vehicles was in order as the government had a duty to protect security of lives and property. “It does not matter whether the implementation is belated or not.
What is important is that the law is currently being implemented, and whoever fails to abide by it will definitely face the consequences of his or her action. Law is no respecter of anybody; once it has been ratified, no person, irrespective of status will go unpunished, if he or she chooses to flout the law,”the Lagos-based lawyer added.
Mr. Ibrahim Ochei, a Lokoja-based legal practitioner, also told Sunday Tribune that the fine of N2,000 or a jail of six months or both stipulated by the act for offenders is not lenient. No one, he said, would like to go to jail, even for a week, let alone spending six months behind bars.
He declared that, ‘’the fine was put at that to discourage people at using unauthorised tint on their vehicles which could pose a serious danger to the public safety. The VIPs won’t say the penalty is insignificant and flout the law. Above the precints of law, there is a need for creating awareness in the members of the public to knowing what is right or wrong. We cannot continue like this, where some individuals deliberately put laws in their own hands,” Ochei said.
A senior police officer, who preferred anonymity, said the police were not selective in implementing the act. While reacting to the allegation that some government functionaries and politicians have tints on their vehicles, he revealed that many vehicles belonging to some known and important figures in the country had been impounded while some had the tints on them removed.
Citing the early March arrest and detention of a Nollywood actor, James Esomugha, popularly known as Jim Iyke, while riding a Chrysler Crossfire convertible car with tinted glasses in Abuja, the police officer said the tint on the actor’s car was forcefully removed, not minding his status.
He said the police needed to be credited from the way they carried out their duties, saying their primary concern was to protect lives and ensure security of all and sundry in the country.
Though many vehicle owners appealed to government to rescind its decision on the use of tinted glasses, it is, however, unclear whether the Federal Government would revisit the issue of ban to allow those who have valid permits put their vehicles on roads, rather than abandoning them in their garages.
NB: This story first appeared in Sunday Tribune of April, 2011.
No comments:
Post a Comment