The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has revealed its intention to destroy over 130 impounded vehicles that failed integrity tests This development was made public by the Director, of the Department of Road Traffic Services (DRTS), Dr Abdulateef Bello, after a tour with journalists around the impounded vehicles in the various offices, in Abuja on Monday. Bello said that the vehicles would be subjected to all standard verification for registration, roadworthiness, and other checks, stressing that those that failed short of the minimum standard would be crushed.
He also said that the owners of some of the impounded vehicles would face the mobile court and pay requisite penalties in line with the provision of the law.“Some of the vehicles that are here; some of them will be made to face the mobile court. The mobile court will decide the kind of penalty that will be given to them. “But there are some that definitely will not go back to the road. We are going to invite the owners. We will ask them to pick whatever is valuable in the vehicle, and the vehicle will be crushed,” he said.
The Director further said that those arrested based on crimes committed in the guise of commercial operations would be handed over to the police for prosecution. Bello explained that a total of 130 substandard vehicles were impounded in the last two weeks during evening raids to impound all substandard vehicles.
According to him, most of the substandard vehicles were playing the city roads in the guise of commercial business, whereas many of them were running the city to perpetrate crime.
He said; “The idea is to ensure that we return the city back to sanity; to remove all traces of insecurity and then to ensure seamless traffic flow in the capital city.“This is an assignment that we have taken upon us in line with the vision of the current administration to guarantee zero tolerance to insecurity in the FCT.”
Bello said that the operations would continue until all substandard vehicles being used for criminality were removed from the city.
On the operation of “one chance”, Bello said that the DRTS operations have substantially reduced the level of criminality associated with “one chance”. He explained that in the last month, DRTS was working to ensure that all taxi operators conduct their businesses in the tax ranks and not on the road corridors. Bello advised residents against patronizing taxis and other vehicles outside the tax ranks.
