Number Plate Infraction (II)

Others like my aunt will report to the police, swear an affidavit but would assume that the two stand as replacement or authority to drive the vehicle. In her case, she claimed she had been driving the vehicle for over one year with the plastic number without anyone arresting her for violating the law. I […]

Others like my aunt will report to the police, swear an affidavit but would assume that the two stand as replacement or authority to drive the vehicle. In her case, she claimed she had been driving the vehicle for over one year with the plastic number without anyone arresting her for violating the law.
I must state here that as contained herein, the two do not confer on you the authority to drive the vehicle with one number plate but requires you to make payment and get a replacement for your vehicle. What motorists who indulge in this don’t know is the security implication of not reporting to the police, especially in the event that a criminal minded person picks up the missing number plate and perpetuates any form of crime with it.
Like I said at the onset, the National Road Traffic Regulations make it mandatory for all vehicles to be registered and assigned a number plate: “All vehicles, private and commercial, shall as from the
commencement of these regulations; have on them the Vehicle Identification Number Plates referred to in this regulation and it shall be an offence for any vehicle not to have the said Identification Number Plate.” What this means is that your new vehicle contrary to what most people do, must not be driven on our roads until after it has been licensed or registered appropriately in keeping with the law.
The second issue raised by my friend Expensive, was over the arrest of their company vehicle on the grounds that it was carrying a private number plate instead of a commercial number plate. Like the first case involving my aunt, I will not play the King Solomon script here but would adopt the same style of allowing the National Road Traffic Regulations (NRTR), which have remained our authority, speak for themselves. Theessence is to acquaint us with relevant information to guard us against exploitative operatives and to equally guide us as knowledgeable road users.
What is a commercial vehicle? As definedunder the interpretation section of the NRTR 2012, a commercial vehicle includes motorcycles for hire, a hackney stage carriage, a prime mover, recovery vehicle, draw bar trailer or articulated vehicle, buses, pick-up vans, tricycles and any motor vehicle primarily designed for the carriage of goods and fare paying passengers as well as vehicles for carrying people by companies andreligious bodies. For this category of vehicles, the regulations provide that the commercial number plate shall have the name of the state in black, the licensing office code, the vehicle registration number and government code in red as enshrined in regulation 39(2)(b)of the NRTR 2012 (Addendum). It may be argued thatthe NRTR do not comprehensively define what is a commercial vehicle. Resort may therefore be placed on the natural and ordinary meaning of what is a commercial vehicle. Or still, when can a vehicle be said to be put to commercial use? A corporate body may buy several cars of the same make and put them to both private and commercial use.
 It further stipulates that  such a  number plate shall be rectangular with dimensions of 30.80cm (12.125) by 15.56cm (6.125) for vehicles and 22.9 cm (9) by 10.2cm (4) using 1 inch (2.54cm) for motorcycles both with white background as enshrined in regulation 39(1) of the NRTR 2012. All commercial vehicles used for public transportation shall be registered as same or violates the provision of this regulation.
In the case of private vehicle, it is defined as a vehicle which is not used for public transportation and is registered as same. A private number plate shall have the name of the state in black, the licensing office code number, the vehicle registration number and local government code in blue as enshrined in regulation 39 (2)(a) of the NRTR 2012.For emphasis, the licensing authority is not the Federal Road Safety Commission, whose responsibility as provided is for the design and production of the number plates for states. It is the states that handle vehicle registration.
What we can deduce from allthat has been said thus far as contained in our regulations, is thattransferring number plate without due authorisation, use of plastic ordefaced number plate or patronising road side printers for makeshift number plate on the grounds that it is yet to be issued after payment, exposes you to the risk of being arrested for number plate infraction.
The regulations equally make provisions such as for the registration of vehicles not previously registered in Nigeria and for auctioned vehicles in addition to those wishing to change the category of vehicles. With respect to vehicles not previously registered in Nigeria , regulation 3(1) subject to sub-regulation (3) of this regulation, states that, “the relevant authority, shall on receipt of a proper application and fee, if any register, the particulars of the vehicle and issue a vehicle licence and if the vehicle was not previously registered in Nigeria, or if the vehicle was previously owned by an exempted body within the meaning of regulation 192 (2) of these regulations, assign to it a number plate within the Local Government Code.”
All auctioned vehicles may be assigned number plates provided the application is accompanied by evidence authorising such auction and relevant payment receipt while in  another sub section, dealing with change of category, it specifies that  any vehicle whose category is to be changed may be assigned identification number provided it was previously registered. However, where vehicle whose category is to be changed was registered in any state other than the one in which the change of category is being sought, the change of category form must be accompanied by a certificate of clearance from the police.