The Inspector General of Police (IGP) on Monday ordered the suspension of the issuance of permits for tinted-glass and SPY plate numbers for vehicles in all the 36 states of the federation and the FCT, Abuja.
Usman Baba on Wednesday clarified that the directive did not affect already issued permits and existing SPY plate numbers.
Baba, who said that some individuals had been fraudulently acquiring permits for tinted-glasses and SPY number plates, warned that, although it was not all the existing permits and SPY plate numbers that were affected by the suspension, the existing SPY number plates must be used only by authorized users.
The IGP made the clarification in a statement issued on Wednesday by police spokesman, CP Frank Mba.
Baba, in the statement, directed commissioners of police (CPs) in all the 36 states and the FCT, Abuja to retrieve all supernumerary (spy) number plates currently in use by unauthorized persons or fitted to unauthorized vehicles, while maintaining that the suspension would remain in force pending the release of a new protocol that will regulate the issuance of tinted-glass permits for vehicle owners and operators in the country.
According to the statement, the IGP stated that “The move is part of efforts to streamline the process of issuance and usage in line with the provisions of the Motor Vehicles (Prohibition of Tinted Glass) Act which is explicit on conditions for the use of vehicles with tinted glasses in Nigeria.”
He explained that the suspension, among other things, was to effectively address contemporary security challenges associated with the usage of tinted glass vehicles by criminal elements that hide under the cover of tinted vehicles to carry out their nefarious activities.
