Again, Court Stops FRSC From Imposing New Drivers License, Number Plates

For the second time in about two months, another Federal High Court judge, Justice Adeniyi Ademola, sitting in Abuja, has halted the decision of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) to impose new driver and vehicle license on car owners whose papers are still valid.

The court delivered the judgement following a suit filed by an Abuja-based lawyer, John Musa.

In the suit, Musa is challenging the commission’s threats to forcefully make every car owner to “obtain a new driver and vehicle license even when the present one is still valid”.

The court declared as “unconstitutional” the threat by the commission to start arresting car owners who have not obtained the new driver’s license even when their present license is still valid.

The plaintiff had joined the commission, as well as its corp marshal and chief executive, Osita Chidoka, as first and second defendants respectively.
While delivering judgement, Adeniyi dismissed the preliminary objections brought by the defendants on ground that they were all “misconceptions of the law”.

The court further held that the commission has no power to invalidate a driver or vehicle license before the expiry date and, therefore, declared that the pronouncement by the commission to do so is “ultra vires, null and void”.