Court Blocks FRSC from Penalizing Drivers for Faded Number Plates

The Federal High Court in Lagos has restrained the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) from arresting or imposing fines on drivers for using vehicles with faded number plates. The judgment comes after a legal practitioner, Chinwike Chamberlain Ezebube, filed a suit against the FRSC challenging its authority to penalize drivers for faded plates.

Justice Akintayo Aluko, delivering the judgment, found that the FRSC cannot criminalize the use of faded vehicle number plates or impose any penalties on drivers for this issue. The court ruled that drivers cannot be fined or punished for having faded number plates if the cause of the fading is due to poor quality production by the FRSC, which is the sole designer and producer of vehicle plates in Nigeria.

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Ezebube filed the case on February 13, 2024, asking the court to determine whether the FRSC was responsible for the poor quality of vehicle plates and whether it could impose fines for fading caused by its own manufacturing deficiencies. He further sought an order mandating the FRSC to replace faded plates at no additional cost to the affected vehicle owners, after paying the original issuance fee.

In his judgment, Justice Aluko ruled that while the FRSC cannot penalize drivers for using faded number plates, individuals must still approach the commission to request replacements, provided they pay the necessary fees for the process.

“The FRSC cannot criminalize the use of faded vehicle number plates nor impose fines or impound vehicles on such grounds without a court order,” Justice Aluko declared. He ordered that the FRSC be restricted from declaring it an offence to drive with a faded plate or imposing fines for such infractions. The court also directed the FRSC to replace the faded vehicle number plate of Ezebube’s vehicle, LSD905EQ, upon payment of the required fees.