LAGOS 22ND (URHOBOTODAY)-The Senate , Thursday has passed a Bill for an Act to amend the Motor Vehicle Prohibition of Tinted Glass Act 2011. The Bill aims at checking indiscriminate use of tinted glass vehicles by motorists.
It proposes N50,000 fine or six month imprisonment for anyone driving a tinted glass vehicle without due approval from appropriate authority.
The Senate adopted the report of its Joint Committee on Police Affairs and Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters on the Bill.
Chairman of the committee, Senator Paulinus Nwagu, said that the Bill “seeks essentially to amend the extant law in order to check indiscriminate use of tinted glass vehicles which beat security checks and carry out nefarious activities”.
Nwagu noted that the bill was sponsored following the spate of reactions from Nigerians on the recent announcement by the Nigerian Police of its intention to arrest and prosecute those driving cars with tinted glass.
He said the development became necessary to bring to the fore the fact that the Police was not trying to introduce a new law but was merely trying to enforce an already existing regulations 66 (2) of the National Traffic Regulations of 1997 and the Motor Vehicles (Prohibition of Tinted Glass) Act.
Nwagu said, “The bill also seeks to address the persisting injustice meted out to Nigerians through embarrassment and harassment, which constitutes a serious affront to the fundamental rights of Nigerians against discrimination as enshrined under section 42 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).”
He noted that presentations by stakeholders during a public hearing in support of the bill, captured the need to address current upsurge in terrorism and other crimes like kidnapping and child trafficking.
The bill, among other provisions requests buyers of imported vehicles with tinted, shaded, coloured, darkened or treated glass to change it to transparent ones within 14 days from the date of arrival in Nigeria or date of purchase.
In the alternative, it demands that buyers of such vehicles should request for a permit for the use of such tinted glass vehicles from the Office of the Inspector General of Police, anywhere in the country, within 90 days of importing the vehicle.
It also made it an offence for anyone to procure tinted glass on vehicles brought into the country with transparent glass, otherwise than in accordance of the provision of the act.
An individual who bought a tinted glass vehicle without changing it to transparent glass, within 14 days, according to the bill, shall be liable to a fine of N2, 000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months, or to both such fine and imprisonment.
Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, who presided over the session, commended his colleagues for passing the bill.
He said that tinted glass vehicles were constituting security challenges and that their continued usage could cause accidents. “We have done the right thing by passing the bill”, he added.