Number plate is your identity, don’t sell with your car, FRSC warns

By Ezurike Ugochukwu

The Federal Road Safety Corps has alerted Nigerians against selling off thier old vehicles with the number plates on it.

This is to protect them from selling such vehicles to people of questionable character.

The new FRSC Sector Commander in Cross Rivers State, Mrs. Elizabeth Akinlade, handed down the warning when she paid a courtesy visit to the state’s Council of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), in Calabar.

The Sector Commander stated that the original owner of the vehicle will be held responsible if the vehicle is used to perpetuate a crime after it had been sold out.

The corps she highlighted has a data bank of the original owners of all vehicles in the country.

“When a car is sold a new buyer ought to do change of ownership.

“Don’t sell your vehicle with the plate number because in our data bank, the name of the original owner of the vehicle including his address is stored.

Elizabeth Akinlade C’Rivers boss FRSC and Victor Udu President NUJ Cross Rivers

“If the vehicle is used to carryout a crime, with the information in our data bank, the original owner may be arrested even if he knows nothing about the crime but sold the car with the plate number.

“One of our strategic goals is to have a robust data-bank because without data you may not be able to do much,” she said.

The main goal of the corps in Cross River in 2022 according to Akinlade would be to reduce road crashes by 15 per cent, which could be reasonably achieved through a cordial relationship with the media.

“We have lost a lot of people especially breadwinners, some of whom have been rendered incapacitated, that is why we continue to urge the media to help us push the message of defensive driving to the public,” she said.

In his remarks, Mr. Victor Udu, Chairman of the NUJ, Cross River Council, thanked the sector commander for her visit, and urged the command to make the process of getting vehicle licence easy.

He, however, appealed to members of the public to ensure that their papers were up-to-date and their vehicles in good condition, especially their tyres, side mirrors, rear glasses to minimise altercations with FRSC officials.

“If we do what the law says, we will have less frictions with FRSC and whenever they stop you for breaking the law, be gentle enough to appeal to them and not claim right,” he said.