Cases of issuance of fake vehicle licenses are rampant in the Federal Capital Territory heightening calls for greater effort in the regulation of vehicle documentation.
The worrisome issue of fake vehicle documents is coming at a time that road traffic agencies are still battling to curtail the proliferation of fake driver’s license and number plates.
Some motorists who spoke on the issue said they were surprised to learn about the fake vehicle documents. They said they had expected such issues to have become a thing of the past with the incorporation of Information Communication Technology (ICT) in its generation.
Spokesperson of the FCT Directorate of Road Traffic Services (DRTS), Mr. Kenechukwu Iloduba, while speaking said the use of technology in the FCT to a great extent has checked the issuance of fake vehicle documents.
Many motorists have fallen victim to the fake vehicle documentation menace. After paying N9, 000 to renew her Lagos-registered vehicle’s documents, Mrs. Olanipekun James (not real name), was stopped by an officer of the Vehicle Inspection Office (VIO) around Utako. Mrs. James, an editor with a national newspaper said she confidently presented her vehicle documents on the request of one of the officers.
She was however shocked to be told by the officer that the documents were fake. The fact that a VIO officer at the DRTS Dutse Command had helped her renew the documents made the statement more confusing, she said.
What started like a joke took her to the Utako Command of the directorate where her vehicle was impounded.
After spending more than three hours at the Utako Command, she was told to pay another N9,000 for the renewal.
She said pleas did not stop the officers, who did not believe another officer issued her with the fake document. But for the intervention of some top officers at the directorate, she would have renewed her vehicle’s document twice in one month.
They are more worried about how the fake documents could be made as the Directorate of Road Traffic Services is solely responsible for the issuance.
“There is surely something wrong with the system. It is done by someone within their office,” Taofeek Shola, a Lugbe resident said.
Though he said he renewed his vehicle license recently, he said he took the papers to a DRTS officer to verify after his friend was said to have been using a fake vehicle license.
The fake vehicle license, some resident said, could make motorists lose trust in the FCT DRTS following several protests and complaints against the road traffic agency in recent times.
Spokesman of the dierectorate, Kenechukwu Iloduba Jnr debunked the claim. He said a group of people and cartel were responsible for the proliferation of fake plate numbers, driver’s license and documents.
He said the cartel issued fake vehicle licenses to unsuspecting motorists that have vehicles registered in other states.
He said it was difficult to fake vehicle license for vehicles registered in the Federal Capital Territory but admitted that motorists from Nasarawa, Kaduna and Lagos states have fallen victim.
He said they have arrested some of the touts adding that whenever they were arrested, the VIO officials always handed them over to the police for persecution. After some time however, they are given bail and because they have the wherewithal, they go back to the business.
“We don’t know where these touts get the documents they give to these unsuspecting motorists in FCT. We advise that FCT motorists should ensure that they go into our office, recognize who they are dealing with and identify the officer within the premises,” he advised.
Some officers of the DRTS who spoke to Aso Chronicle said checking
the menace could be more difficult than the ‘ogas’ had thought though they admitted its possibility. One of them, while explaining ways to identifying a fake vehicle license said the letterings do not always conform while the bold expiry date could also be different.
The FCT DRTS spokesperson however maintained that if any FCT motorist has had any dealing with VIO officers in FCT that leads to being issued with a fake driver’s license, plate number or documents, such a person should make a report to the management of FCT DRTS so that such an officer would be dealt with accordingly.
Mrs. James on her part said upon returning to the VIO officer that helped with the renewal of her vehicle documents, after some days of hide-and-seek, he collected the fake license with a promise to come with the original.
Her challenge, however, is verifying how authentic the license would be if he eventually returns with it. What took her less than two days to renew, is now taking more than one week for the officer to come up with an original.
