The Federal Road Safety Commission’s (FRSC) Sector Commander in Cross River, Elizabeth Akinlade, has warned Nigerian car users against selling their vehicles with number plates.
The new sector commander, who took over from Mr Ocheja Ameh, gave the warning when she visited the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), Cross River Council in Calabar, where she posited that it is important to protect unsuspecting members of the public against selling their vehicles to people of questionable character. She added that the original owner of the vehicle will be held responsible for any criminal activity the vehicle is used for, after it has been sold, even if he/she knows nothing about the crime.
Consequently, the sector commander disclosed that the Corps has a data bank of the original owners of all vehicles in the country, hence, when a car is sold, a buyer, who becomes the owner, ought to do a change of ownership to legally transfer ownership of the vehicle to him.
She said, “Don’t sell your vehicle with the plate number because in our data bank, the name of the original owner of the vehicle including his address is stored.
“If the vehicle is used to carry out a crime, with the information in our data bank, the original owner may be arrested even if he knows nothing about the crime but sold the car with the plate number.
“One of our strategic goals is to have a robust data-bank because without data you may not be able to do much.”
Research shows that the buying of used cars in Nigeria is on the increase compared to the number of New vehicles on Nigerian roads. Also, the global micro-chip shortage which has drastically affected mass production of vehicles across the globe, has been predicted to increase the volume of used cars in Africa, and precisely Nigeria, which is the hub of the concentration of these used vehicles. Consequently, dealers, buyers and users who want to dispose-off their vehicles will have to be wary of this new development.
