Misbahu Bashir
16 November 2008
Touts have taken over the official duty of issuing motor licence from the Directorate of Road Traffic Services (DRTS) in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Public Relations Officer of the directorate, Mrs Vivian Uttah said in view of the public outcry on the activities of the touts, the directorate had intensified patrol and searches on vehicles within the territory and had arrested a considerable number of vehicles with fake particulars issued to them by touts.
"Any vehicle arrested for the offence of fake particulars will be impounded and there are a number of them that have been impounded. In the case of the touts, as soon as we identify them, we normally invite the police to arrest and prosecute them," the PRO said.
The directorate had, between late 2007 and early 2008, made efforts to sanitise the issuance of vehicle particulars. Its immediate past director sought the services of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and 16 persons were arrested for touting and charged to court. Some premises were equally raided from time to time to arrested any persons believed to be forging particulars.
Investigations, however, showed that the delay in issuance of licence had contributed to the touting menace. The Chairman, Amalgamated Motorcycle Owners Association, Kubwa Branch, Abuja, Aminu Byazin, at the global road safety week awareness campaign in Abuja recently, said members of his association were told to wait before they could receive Driver's License after making payments for a long time.
He said they were told by some of the officials of the directorate that they had to go home and wait until the licenses were ready for collection.
However, the sector commandant of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), Nseobong Akpabio said the motorcyclists must have paid their money to wrong persons-persons who were no staff of the directorate.
He said if they had completed the necessary procedure with the directorate's genuine officials, they would have been told to go to the FRSC office for physical capture.
"It's not an excuse for any motorcyclist to say he had paid his money for Driver's License to somebody. People should be able to meet the appropriate officers not touts," the sector commander said.
Another vital document that was often forged by the touts was the motor vehicle insurance certificate. Police said close to 70 per cent of the insured vehicles in Abuja had fake certificates.
Chairman of the Motor Vehicle Insurance Squad, FCT, Wilson Inalegwu, an Assistant Commissioner of Police, said the police had recently established their presence in all the road traffic offices to bring to an end the sale of fake vehicle insurance certificates. He said the squad had stepped up efforts to educate motorists on genuine insurance companies.
He said the danger in obtaining fake certificates was that the victim would not be compensated in case of accident, besides losing his money to the touts. He said vehicle owners should avoid anybody who claimed to provide them with particulars or insurance certificate at cheap rate.
The Senior Claims Officer of the One Stop Claims Shop for Motor Vehicle Insurance, (OSCAR), Henry Omijeh, told Sunday Trust that they were receiving complaints on daily basis on the activities of touts at directorate's offices on the issuance of motor vehicle insurance certificate.
He said OSCAR and the directorate had, in respect of the complaints, resolved to form a special patrol team which would be going round to apprehend touts. He said the majority of the touts either inflated the amount paid for the certificates or issued fake certificated.
He said, "Even the agents of the insurance companies that usually station themselves at the directorate's offices to look for customers are involved in this shoddy deal. They connive with touts or on their own print out fake certificates and issue to them motorists. However, what we decided to do now is to encourage motorists not to go to any other place, particularly, to the directorate but go directly to the offices of insurance companies and obtain their certificates so that in the event of any accident, they will find it easier to trace the companies for their benefits, instead of looking for agents to link them up with the companies."
He said one of the ways to eradicate touts from public offices particularly as regards motor vehicle insurance certificate was for the insurance companies to establish enough offices across the country and create awareness on the consequences of obtaining forged certificates from the touts.
He said officials of the directorate should ensure that no unauthorised persons conducted any business in and around their premises and that they should arrest and prosecute their officials found to be conniving with touts.
He called on the management of the directorate to find a way of monitoring its Nyanya office well, which, he said, registered more complaints on activities of touts. He said customers complain that they found it difficult to differentiate between genuine officials and touts.
Uttah confirmed that touts were behind the issuance of fake motor vehicle insurance certificates, plate numbers and vehicle particulars and warned the public to deal only with authorised officials. She, however, denied that the directorate's officers had links with touts.
She said, "Nigerians should not patronise people selling particulars by the road side."
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