The Federal Road Safety Commission(FRSC) says it does not deal with individual officials of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) on issuance and withdrawal of their official number plates.
Mr Bisi Kazeem, Head of Media Relations and Strategy, FRSC, stated this during a telephone interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Thursday.
NAN reports that the clarification came in the wake of a practice whereby some vehicles hang official number plates even when owners of such vehicles have left office.
According to Kazeem, FRSC does not issue number plates to individual government officials but to the heads of their respective organisations who issue them to deserving officers and withdraw same when the need arises.
“For instance, the FRSC issues official number plates to the Clerk of the National assembly who issues them to the legislators and withdraws the plates from them after their tenure.
“It is only when an organisation finds it difficult to withdraw the plates from officials who should not use them again that FRSC intervenes by informing our field officers to retrieve them during routine check.
“The process is the same with other organisations that have official number plates issued to their officers; they are also the ones to withdraw the plates from them, but in difficult cases they involve the FRSC,” he said.
NAN recalls that Mr Boboye Oyeyemi, Corps Marshal, FRSC, has been emphasising the need for government officials to obey traffic laws at all times, even when using their official vehicles. (NAN)