DON’T PAY FOR TINTED VEHICLE PERMIT –IG

The Inspector- General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar, on Friday said the permit for tinted vehicle glasses does not attract any fees.

Many motorists had complained about the police clampdown against the use of tinted glasses and accused policemen of extorting them for using tinted glasses without permits.

But Abubakar, who spoke in Abuja on Friday during a meeting with the Assistant Inspectors-General of Police in charge of 12 zonal commands across the country, advised motorists not to succumb to financial demand by any policemen, noting that the application for the permit was free.

“It (permit for tinted glasses) is free of charge; there is no amount of money written there for anybody. They (motorists) should not allow any policeman anywhere to subject them to paying fees that are not officially, legally and legitimately stated,” he said.

Abubakar said those complaining about the clampdown were not sincere as they knew that “by all standards they do not deserve to have tinted glass vehicles.”

He vowed that the police and other security agencies would enforce the ban as it was meant for the good of all Nigerians.

According to him, the law authorises only the IG to issue permits for tinted vehicle glasses without delegating such power to Commissioners of Police.

“Do you know that most criminals use tinted vehicles as cover to carry arms and ammunition, to carry EIDs, to throw bombs on innocent worshippers in churches and mosques and other places?

“We cannot continue to fold our arms and allow criminality to take place. Tell me, what a commercial vehicle is doing with tinted glass? Tell me what an ordinary Nigerian who has nothing to hide is doing with tinted glasses?” he asked.

The IG said criminal elements such as kidnappers, armed robbers and terrorists had been using vehicles with tinted glasses, stressing that the police would not allow that to continue.

Meanwhile, the Benue State Police Command on Friday said it had recovered two bodies with gunshot wounds at Annune and Adaka villages near Makurdi.

The command’s Public Relations Officer, Daniel Ezeala, told the News Agency of Nigeria in Makurdi that the corpses were discovered by the anti-riot squad drafted to the area to maintain peace and order.

He, however, denied claims by residents of Adaka village that Fulani herdsmen had invaded the village and were killing Tiv people.

Ezeala said, “The claims are unfounded. What actually happened was that some of the villagers saw two armed men at Adaka village and got panicky. Some of them started fleeing the village.”

The spokesman said that normalcy had since been restored while the villagers had already returned to their homes. But some of the villagers, who spoke with NAN disagreed with Ezeala’s claims.

Source: Punch