From Edem Archibong, in Calabar
It has become a common practice by the Nigeria Police Force in Calabar, the Capital of Cross River State to crack down on vehicles with tinted glasses despite court order halting same.
This situation became worrisome in Calabar recently as police traffic wardens including other uniform police officers came out in numbers on the public highways to prevent all motorists from passing once they classified your vehicle glasses as tinted.
This development is not limited to demanding for your vehicle particulars alone, it involves compelling the tinted vehicle driver, whether factory fitted or manually tinted, to pay a fee of not less than N30,000,00 for permit to use such glasses.
A resident, who was a victim of the tinted glasses crackdown, narrated his experience with the police officers.
Mr. John Osakwe disclosed that he was asked to park his vehicle and show his particulars to them for checking which he humbly did but after a careful perusal of the documents, he was asked to produce a police permit for tinted glasses.
The resident explained that his vehicle was not a tinted one but the police continued to argue that the vehicle was dark inside therefore he must buy a permit.
Behold, “before I could say, Jack robbinson” the police have impounded not less than 500 vehicles.,” the resident said.
A Journalist who suffered similar crackdown is the Chairman of Correspondents’ Chapel, Emme Offiong. She explained that her vehicle was a factory fitted glasses but the police refused to listen unless she paid the sum of N30,000.00 for a tinted glasses until the Police PPRO, Irene Ugbo was contacted on phone before she was cleared.
Speaking on the situation in Calabar, Mr. Mba Ukweni, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) rebuked the police who have no authority to impound vehicles on account of the glasses being a little dark or tinted if there was nothing incriminating in the vehicle and the particulars are intact.
He also declared that “the Court has restrained the police from impounding vehicles or harassing drivers on account of tinted glasses, and the police have to comply with the court order”, he said.
It could be recalled that a Federal High Court sitting in Warri, Delta State had issued an interim injunction restraining the police from implementing or enforcing the recently announced tinted glasses permit policy in Nigeria.
