The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Zone 2 Command, on Friday said that there were no fewer than 70,000 unclaimed driver’s licences in Lagos State.
Assistant Corp Marshall Samuel Obayemi, the head of command comprising of Lagos and Ogun, disclosed this during a visit to the palace of Akran of Badagry, Aholu Menu Toyi 1, in Lagos.
He expressed concern that Lagosians who had gone to check their driver’s licences and discovered that they were not ready often refuse to go back for rechecking.
“The truth of the matter is that FRSC is in charge of driver’s licences but different licence offices do the distribution.
“Since people are not forthcoming, we are now working with various boards of internal revenue to see that these unclaimed licences are collected.
” As at today, we have about 70,000 yet to be collected driver’s licences in Lagos State alone. That is why we started “Operation Show Your Licence.”
“The idea behind this is that when we stop them and find out that some don’t have licences, we encourage them to go to various licence offices to collect their driver’s licences.
“As I speak to you, some of these licences have expired because they did not collect them after three years.
READ ALSO: Operation Show Your Driver’s Licence begins in Lagos Monday — FRSC
“Some people would have died while some would have relocated to other states, but there are still some who are around who are yet to collect it.
“It is our hope that at the end of the exercise, there will be drastic reduction in the unclaimed licences,” he said.
Obayemi urged people who are yet to collect their licences to go to different licence offices in Lagos for collection.
The commander said that he was in Badagry to receive blessing from Akran and to visit the FRSC Unit there and familiarise with the personnel.
“When you take over a command, as a commanding officer, the normal thing is to go round all formations and familiarise yourself with other personnel.
” As a point of call, I am here in Badagry to receive Akran’s blessing and I feel comfortable here.
“We run into problems with road users in Badagry and every road user is a subject of Akran. So, we know that when there is problem, we run to Akran for solution,” he said.
Responding, the Akran of Badagry, thanked Obayemi for visiting his palace and assured him of the support of the people of Badagry.
Akran blessed him and prayed that God would guide and protect him throughout his stay in office.
Chief Tunde Giro, the Depegan of Badagry Kingdom urged the zonal commander to give more patrol vehicles to the FRSC Unit in Badagry in order to be more effective.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the commanding officer also visited the Seriki Abass Slave trade Museum and the First Storey Building in Badagry.
Obayemi was accompanied by the Unit Commander of Badagry FRSC, Mr Babatope Agbaje and other personnel from the unit. (NAN)
