Police Arrest 38, 771 Traffic Offenders In July, Tips Public On Fake Number Plates

A total number of 38, 771 traffic offenders were arrested and issued Express Penalties Scheme (EPS) tickets for various traffic offences at various checkpoints across the country during July 2022, a police report revealed on Monday.

Of these, 6, 599 were arrested for reckless driving, 8, 327 for driving DMCs, 3, 724 for having invalid licenses, and 3, 105 for using vehicles without valid insurance and 1, 774 for overspeeding.

Also, 2, 823 were arrested for not wearing seat belts, 732 for using handheld mobile telephones while driving, and 3, 070 for riding motorcycles without wearing crash helmets and 822 for carrying more than one passenger on the motorcycle.

The police report also reveals that 1, 338 accidents occurred in July and of these 234 were fatal, 731 were serious injuries and 373 were minor. The police further revealed that there were 1, 254 accident victims during the period under review of which 289 people died and 965 sustained injuries.

“All those operating private vehicles and station Wagon (drones) to offer public transport without a license must stop it immediately. As you are aware, section 105(1) of the traffic and road safety act 1998 (as amended 2020) makes it an offence to use a vehicle for the carriage of passengers or goods for hire or reward when not licensed to do or breach of license and on conviction a fine of not less than fifteen currency points (300, 000/=) and not exceeding one hundred currency points (2, 000, 000/=) or imprisonment not exceeding year or both,” the police warned.

Relatedly, police have today, Tuesday 2nd August 2022, revealed that drivers of taxis and boda boda riders use fake number plates to carry out robberies and go undetected.

“After the commission of the crime or robbery, they remove the fake number plates and dispose them,” Police Spokesperson CP Fred Enanga said in a statement.

He added: “It, therefore, becomes difficult to trace the wanted car with fake number plates under the Automated Number Plate Recognition System. Our task teams and traffic officers are now required to routinely check registration plates to confirm if they are genuine. Cloned plates are used by criminals to disguise their identity, hide the fact that it is stolen or avoid paying fines generated by camera systems.

Enanga emphasized that the cloning and defacing of genuine number plates affect road safety and provides cover for criminal. Therefore, all culprits glorifying the usage of fake number plates will face very severe consequences, he sternly warned.