The Directorate of Road Traffic Services (DRTS) in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, has denied reports that it was deliberately hoarding vehicle number plates to sell above the official rate.
This is contained in a statement by the Head, Public Relations and Enlightenment of the service, Mr. Kalu Emetu, on Monday in Abuja.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that an online publication had on Saturday, alleged that the DRTS deliberately hoards number plates to sell at express rate of between N100,000 and N120,000.
This, the report said was against the official rate of N56, 000.
Emetu said that the service had since 2020, during the Covid-19 era, encouraged members of the public or new vehicle owners to login to www.drts.evreg.gov.ng to register for their vehicle number plates.
He said this was with a view to remove all cases of human infractions, including hoarding and selling at exorbitant costs as being peddled about.
The spokesman said that instead, some Nigerians still preferred to use third parties for services that would not take more than 30 minutes of their time.
He said that vehicle owners always end up paying more because of the involvement of third party.
“The management of DRTS has read with shock an online publication of Saturday, May 25, titled: how VIO sells number plate’s for N100, 000 and N120, 000.
“It is imperative that we put the facts straight. The office of the director does not sell number plates as alleged by the publication.
“But it is the responsibilities of the Directorate’s Central Motor Registry (CMR), a unit in the motor vehicle administration division that handles every issue concerning registration of motor vehicles and renewals.
“The directorate does not entertain the word “express” in the context it was used by the publication since every Nigerian is treated equally.”
Emetu said that scarcity had always being there, especially since the third quarter of 2023 as the only source of production of number plates was the Federal Road Safety Corp’s plant.
He said that corp’s plant has not been able to meet up the production demand of the FCT, and this situation has equally been reported to the leadership of FCT Transportation Secretariat for record purposes.
“It is no longer news that almost every Nigerian wants to drive vehicles with Abuja number plates and this development has worsened the whole situation.
”The FRSC print farm located in Gwagwalada, FCT, is almost obsolete and cannot produce for all the states of the federation”, he explained. (NAN)
