During a briefing yesterday, Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar advised Nigerians not to fall victim to policeman harassment anywhere in the country as a result of the ban on tinted glasses, he advised that motorist shouldn’t part with money to any police officer because the permit for tinted glass is free.
The IG gave the advice even as he noted that the law on tinted glass and implementation was motivated by the need for safety for all Nigerians, he said, “nobody can compel law enforcement agencies to abandon their responsibilities of implementing the law and order as stipulated in the statute books”.
The Inspector General who was speaking during an emergency security meeting with Zonal AIG’s at Force headquarters, said, “The issue here is that most criminals use tinted glass to hide arms and ammunition, they use it to hide IEDS’, they use it to throw bombs at churches and kill innocent Nigerians and we cannot allow this to continue”.
He went ahead to explain that tinted glassed should only be used by two outfits which are “security operative and medical ambulances”.
Abubakar frowned at those trying to make issues out of the tinted glass directive saying, “There is nowhere that an amount of money was written to be paid for tinted glass permit. Police is not a revenue generation agency. In any case, tell me, what a commercial vehicle owner is doing with tinted glass? What is the ordinary citizen doing with tinted glass?” he asked.
He affirmed that, “The law is clear on tinted glasses. The only two premises under which tinted glasses can be used are for security and medical reasons. On security, there are agencies and offices permitted to use such glasses and for the medical, there has to be something or problem with your sight”.
“If anybody brings a car with tinted glass into the country, the law gives him or her two weeks to remove it or secure a permit. And the law vests the power to issue permit to the IGP because of the need to avoid abuse”.
“We have issues of terrorism, kidnapping, armed robbery, cultism, communal clashes, revolving lights, use of siren, tinted glass and most importantly, crime and criminality to contend with”.
Even though we have heard this before especially by “The oga’s at the top”, it is yet to be seen if this directive would be followed through by the Policemen and security operatives on the roads. It would also have aided commuters if the IG had spelt out the exact procedure for getting a license from State and local government levels as not everyone has access to the his office.