Police commence enforcement on tinted vehicle glasses, covered number plates

Abdullateef Fowewe

The Federal Capital Territory Police Command has initiated a crackdown on vehicles with tinted windows and covered number plates as part of measures to combat the increasing incidence of crimes like kidnapping and others.

Recall that the police have issued a warning to vehicle owners in the FCT, urging them to remove any tint from their windows or risk having their vehicles impounded.

This was revealed in a statement shared on the X (formally Twitter) handle of the FCT police command.

It reads, “For now, the use of tinted glasses on vehicles is prohibited. If your vehicle has tinted glasses, kindly remove them to avoid having your vehicle impounded by the police. This is one of the measures implemented to combat the rising incidents of ‘one chance’ and other criminal activities in the FCT.”

However, the FCT Commissioner of Police, Olatunji Disu, explained that many kidnapping victims rescued by the police had pointed out that tinted windows made it harder for people to recognise them as being in distress. He further clarified that criminals frequently exploited vehicles with obscured number plates to carry out their activities without leaving a trace.

“We are clamping down on all commercial vehicles and everybody tinting their vehicles. We need to see people in their vehicles; tinted glass is contributing to a lot of lawlessness.

“A lot of the kidnapped victims that we have rescued have given us their word that the tinted glass made it impossible for people to know that they were in distress.

“A lot of them at the same time covered their number plates, or some deliberately did not put number plates on their vehicle.

“This is to warn residents of the FCT that henceforth the police will enforce all laws on tinted glasses. Nobody has the right to tint their vehicles. We will enforce the law on covering number plates; nobody has the right to cover their number plates.

“We will enforce laws on people not fixing registration numbers on their vehicles, because all these are forms of criminality that people take advantage of to rob innocent citizens of the FCT,” he said.