Dutse, Jan.31, 2025
Jigawa state Taskforce Committee on retrieval of government official number plates have confiscated over 100 plate numbers illegally owned by car owners in Jigawa state.
While presenting the report on Friday, the Chairman of the Taskforce committee, DC Tijjani Murtala said, they embarked on sensitization, consultations and enforcement on the mandate given to them.
Murtala explained that, the taskforce Committee, was mandated to identify and confiscate unauthorized government official number plates used by civil servants and public office holders within the State.
“We were tasked to sensitize officers on the consequences of using official numbers plates on private vehicles and make recommendations for government to deal with the rampant misuse of the number plates.
“We discovered that the government official number plates currently in circulation, were issued to other vehicles, different from the ones using them,” he said.
According to the committee chair, the abuse of the government number plates poses security threat to the state, as criminals may use them to bypass security checks and carry out nefarious activities.
In the same vein, the committee in its report, recommended that government should consider re-register all government official vehicles and declare all official plates non-transferable.
It also recommended that any private vehicle found with government’s official number plates should be sanctioned accordingly, urging the government to consider rebranding official number plates.
Furthermore, the committee recommended that government should automate all registered official number plates, in order to have a central data base for security and accountability.
In addition, the commitee advised the government to retain the Joint Taskforce Committee on the abuse of government official number plates and commended the government for the confidence bestowed on them.
Responding, the Secretary to the Government of Jigawa State, Mr Bala Ibrahim, commended the committee for the report and assured them that the government will review its finding for possible implementation.
The Namadi administration on inception, set-up a taskforce commitee to retrieve stolen official number plates in Jigawa state.
The commitee submitted its report to the Secretary to the Jigawa state government on Friday, at the expiration of the duration of their task.
By Aisha Ahmed
Dutse
