The Vehicle Inspection Office (VIO) on Wednesday blamed proxy applicants for the proliferation of fake driver’s licence and number plates in the Federal Capital Territory.

The Public Relations Officer of the office, Mr KK Iloduba, made this known in an Interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.

Iloduba said: “The principal reason for the rampancy of fake drivers licence is the proxy nature of applicants; most applicants want to get it by proxy.

VIO official

“They don’t want to go through the due process and the same thing applies to the plate number.

“I have had genuine cases where politicians or aides to a politician will come and say my boss just took delivery of nine SUV jeeps.

“We need plate numbers now; we are travelling with all the vehicles in the next six hours; is it possible?

“Secondly, we have come to a point when we don’t want the motoring public to deal with officers anymore.

“Nobody should give money to a road traffic officer to process drivers’ licence or plate number or renewal of vehicle papers.

“This is the procedure to do it. Come into the office you will meet a desk officer and you will be guided.’’

According to Iloduba, the office was doing all within its means to curb the menace of fake drivers licence and plate number and bring the perpetrators of such crime to book.

He said the office had never had a case where a road traffic officer was caught in the process of procuring a fake driver’s licence or a fake number plate for a motorist.

He urged members of the public to be wary of “touts who always have the semblance of VIO officers’’, and who go out to deceive people and issue them with fake documents and licences.

According to him, such people can always be found hanging around the VIO premises to intercept unsuspecting people on their way to the office to apply for genuine documents.

Iloduba, who said that many of such people had been arrested and handed over to the police on many occasions, told NAN that no VIO personnel had been found to be involved in the practice.

He said: “I am not protecting my organisation, but the truth is this; we are looking for an opportunity to make a public example of a road traffic officer, who is caught in the issuance of fake drivers licence and fake number plate.

“And there is something that is common among these fake items, it is the content that is fake, the card itself that they print the information is original.

“How these people lay hands on it we don’t know, the same thing applies to the plate number, it is the forging that is fake and the numbering but the material itself is original.

“So we encourage Nigerians to get used to due process before you are issued a drivers licence.’’

The VIO spokesperson, however, advised motorists to drive cautiously and to ensure that their vehicle documents and driver’s licence were up to date.

He urged aspiring drivers to go through a driving school, do a road test, and ensure that they were qualified before obtaining their driver’s licences.