Henceforth, any vehicle owner seeking registration with the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) without genuine Customs clearance, would have such car impounded.
President Goodluck Jonathan gave the directive yesterday when the Corps Marshal of the FRSC, Osita Chidoka, presented to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) an update on Nigeria’s Status on the United Nations Decade of Action for Road Safety (2011-2020).
The President said it was not enough for the FRSC to just ask people without the genuine papers to obtain the document, but must investigate how the vehicle got into the country without the genuine papers.
Chidoka told State House correspondents at the end of the FEC meeting that the presidential directive would speed up the accumulation of reliable database on vegicles plying the roads and eliminate fake Customs papers often bandied about by motorists seeking to register their vehicles.
He said: “people come to us and present their Customs Duty paper and we register. But from now, we are no longer taking those papers, we are not linked with the Customs Clearance platform. So, the data of all the vehicles that validly entered the country through the Customs system is already domiciled in our system. So, when we enter your chassis number and that vehicle does not come up into the system, then, we will order you to get genuine Customs papers because what they carry are fake.
“We have been able to do that for the insurance industry. If you notice now if you register your car with the new number plate, they will tell you to bring your e-policy because all the insurance companies are required to update their policy to a database while we verify it. So, any car that carries the new number plate, that goes through registration has valid insurance. That is what we want to do with the Customs licence.
Initially, our plan was when we see your papers and they are not correct, we ask you to go back to the Customs, but with the feedback from Mr. President today, that is not enough. We need to hold that car, investigate how it entered the country without going through the normal process. So, we will modify the process to include the Customs in that process”.
He said the corps was intent on making Nigerian roads among the 20 safest in the world by 2020 even as he explained that the UN Decade of Action was declared following global statistics that road accidents were killing about 1.3 million persons every year, especially in developing countries.
Chidoka highlighted the achievements recorded since 2007, saying that the corps’ personnel has increased from 11,000 to 19,000; patrol vehicles from 170 to over 800; and ambulances from 10 to 52; as well as more than 400 Call Centres and increased funding of the FRSC.
He disclosed that the ECOWAS Regional Vehicle Identification Scheme has adopted Nigeria’s FRSC model of operation while Ghana and Sierra Leone have asked for Nigeria’s assistance in improving their own road safety management
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