The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), has said it would begin enforcement of the new drivers’ licence and number plate on August 1.
The Lagos State Sector Commander, Chidi Nkwonta, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the decision followed the new court judgment.
Nkwonta said: “This new judgment made it very clear that as from August 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 August 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 August 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 the Federal High Court in Anambra State, on June 30, ruled in a suit filed by Ajefo Ekwo challenging FRSC’s powers to enforce new drivers’ licence and number plate.
Umeadi said the respondent’s directive to change old drivers’ licence and number plates to a new one was legal, valid, subsisting and in conformity with the FRSC’s 2007 Act and the National Road Traffic Regulations of 2012.
Nkwonta, however, said 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 the earlier judgment was given in error and the commission would stand by the new judgment while appealing against the earlier judgment.
He said the command had not failed to process the vehicle documents for new applicants that patronised the commission after the initial judgment.
Source: Daily Independent
