The Inspector General of Police (IG), Mr. Mohammed Abubakar, has said that obtaining permit for the use of vehicles with tinted glasses is absolutely free.
Speaking on Friday at a meeting with Assistant Inspectors-General of Police in charge of the 12 zonal commands in Nigeria, Abubakar said the process of “obtaining tinted glass permit is free of charge, and there is no amount of money written there for anybody to pay.”
According to him, “Motorists should not allow any policeman, anywhere to subject them to paying charges that are not officially, legally and legitimately stated.”
The News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, reported that the clarification of the IG was against the backdrop of renewed clampdown on motorists driving vehicles with tinted glasses nationwide.
Abubakar, however, said that those complaining about the clampdown were not sincere as they know that “by all standards they do not deserve to have tinted glass vehicles’’.
He said that the police would enforce the ban as it was meant for the good of all Nigerians.
The police boss said that to avoid abuse in the granting of the permit, the law only authorised the IG to issue it without delegating such power to commands commissioners of police.
“Do you know that most criminals use tinted vehicles as hideout, to carry arms and ammunition, EIDs, to throw bombs on innocent worshippers in churches and mosques and other places?” he asked.
“We cannot continue to fold our hands and allow criminality to take place.”
“Tell me what a commercial vehicle is doing with tinted glass, tell me what an ordinary Nigerian who has nothing to hide is doing with tinted glass.”
“We appeal to Nigerians to understand this, that the essence of doing what we are doing is to ensure that people are safe and that innocent people are not just unnecessarily attack,’’ he said.
The IG said that criminal elements such as kidnappers, armed robbers and terrorists use vehicle with tinted glasses to commit crimes, stressing that the police would not allow that to continue.
The meeting was to review security challenges, including terrorism, kidnapping, cultism and communal clashes in parts of the country in order to strategise on how to address the challenges.
Individuals having vehicles with tinted glasses have been in dilemma over the police clampdown, saying that their vehicles came with factory-fitted tinted glasses.
Vehicle owners say the police charge between N10,000 and N50,000 to grant the tinted permits, wondering whether the money actually goes into the coffers of the Federal Government.
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