Information minister Labaran Maku got a rebuke from the Senate yesterday for making ?unguarded statements? on the resolutions of the National Assembly regarding the controversial new vehicle licencing policy. Maku was reported to have said on March 8 that the resolutions passed by the Senate and the House of Representatives stopping the issuance of new vehicle registration numbers had no force of law. At a public hearing on the same issues in Abuja yesterday, chairman of the Senate committee on Federal Character and Inter-Governmental Affairs, Dahiru Awesu Kuta, warned Maku never to make such comments about decisions taken by the legislature.
?The Minister of Information, the spokesman and image-maker of the Federal Government, is advised to desist from making unguarded statements on the resolutions of the National Assembly on the new number plates and other issues,? Kuta said, referring to Maku?s comments made at a public lecture organised by the FRSC in Abuja.
?Making such unguarded statements is ill-timed, pre-emptive, unfortunate, insensitive, inciting and uncalled for.
?In advanced democracies, resolutions of the legislature are taken seriously and serve as a guide to the executive. After all, we are not at war with the executive, and we do not intend to be at war with any arm of government.
?The well-being and welfare of the people is the main concern of this administration. Therefore, all our actions must be in the best interest of the Nigerian masses,? he added.
The two chambers of the National Assembly passed separate resolutions asking the Federal Road Safety Commission to suspend the issuance of new vehicle registration numbers and driver?s licences pending investigations.
But Maku, in answer to a question at a lecture organised by the FRSC on March 8, said, ?National Assembly resolutions are not laws and so the executive will always apply them as exigencies as circumstances permit. But when there are Acts of the National Assembly, they are compulsory and must be implemented.?
Police, FRSC bicker over vehicle licensing
During the lag-leg of the Senate committee hearing yesterday, FRSC and Police officials sparred over which agency is statutorily empowered to register and keep vehicles database.
Speaking, Deputy Inspector General of Police in charge of Information and Communication Technology, Mr. Olajide Akano, said ?no section of the National Road Traffic Regulations of 2004 empowers the FRSC to register vehicles and maintain database.
?It is the Motor Licencing Authority of each state of the federation that is statutorily empowered to register vehicles; while the Police Act 2004 empowers the police to maintain vehicle statistics.
?Our position in the Nigeria Police is that the Motor Licencing Authority should be concerned about the problems associated with the production of old number plates and vehicle registration. This is not the responsibility of the FRSC.?
He also said it would not cost the Police more than N3,500 to produce a number plate for clean vehicles and N5,000 for tinted ones, as against the FRSC?s claim that N7, 590 was required to produce a number plate.
In a riposte, FRSC Corps Marshall Mr. Osita Chidoka told the committee that the police had been stripped of the right to register and keep vehicle database since 2003.
He said the Joint Tax Board (JTB), at a meeting in 2003, indicted the Police ?for issuing un-receipted Enhanced Central Motor Registry (ECMR) to Nigerians.?
?The communique issued at the end of the 104th meeting of the Joint Tax Board (JTB) held in 2003 in Nasarawa State noted that road taxes are the responsibility of the states. The communiqu� also highlighted that the ECMR are un-receipted by the Police.
?The meeting agreed that the function of keeping motor vehicle records is kept statutorily by the FRSC. The Joint Tax Board has said that the Central Motor Registry, as it is currently put, is illegal,? Chidoka said.
In his closing remarks at the end of the two-day public hearing, Senator Kuta assured that the committee would, based on the submissions by the various stakeholders, consider the interest of Nigerians in coming up with its recommendations on the new driver?s licence and number plate scheme.
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