The Nigerian Bar Association has condemned the continued harassment of motorists by police officers enforcing the tinted glass permit policy, despite a subsisting court order restraining such enforcement.

The Chairman of the Public Interest Litigation Committee, NBA Section on Public Interest and Development Law, Olukunle Edun (SAN), told The PUNCH on Wednesday that the police had already been served with all necessary court processes in the suit filed against them.

“They have been served with the court processes since Monday,” Edun confirmed.

The suit — John Aikpokpo-Martins v. Inspector-General of Police & Nigeria Police Force — was filed at the Federal High Court, Warri, in Suit No. FHC/WR/CS/103

The court had granted an interim injunction restraining the police from implementing or enforcing the tinted glass permit policy pending determination of the case.

On October 4, the Force Public Relations Officer, CSP Benjamin Hundeyin, claimed that the police had not been formally served.

But on Wednesday, the Federal Capital Territory Police Command spokesperson, Josephine Adeh,  confirmed that the Force had received the court processes and suspended enforcement.

“Information reaching me from the office of the Force PRO is that we have officially received the processes, and the enforcement is on hold until the court rules,” Adeh said in an interview with AIT.

She also clarified that the registration and payment for tinted glass permits were handled online and that all fees were remitted directly to the government’s Treasury Single Account.

“The fees are not paid to the police. Everything is done online; officers only verify documents,” she stated.

However, on Wednesday, a journalist in Calabar, Cross River State, John Osakwe, said his vehicle was impounded by the police over lack of tinted glass permits.

Narrating the incident, he said, “One of the officers said my front glass looked different from the back and demanded a permit. I told him the glass wasn’t tinted, but he insisted I go get a permit for N30,000,” Osakwe said.“He even opened my car door and snatched the key, claiming they were acting on orders from above.”

He said his vehicle was only released after he called the state Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Irene Ugbo, who intervened over the phone.

Another motorist, Mr. Edem Udofia, said his bus was seized and driven to the police station because officers claimed its factory-fitted glass was “too dark.”

 

 

That bus is my only source of livelihood. If I don’t get it back today, my family will have nothing to eat,” Udofia lamented.

When contacted, DSP Ugbo urged motorists to ensure their documents were complete but did not confirm whether enforcement had been officially suspended in the state.

The NBA, through SPIDEL, said it was “outraged” by the police’s continued harassment of motorists despite being duly served with the court order.

The association described the enforcement as illegal, contemptuous, and fraudulent, vowing to seek redress.

“The police are not a revenue-generating agency. The money being demanded to secure a permit is unconstitutional,” the NBA said. “We shall invoke the powers of the court to ensure that the police do not trample on the rights of Nigerians.”

The body warned that any citizen harassed under the guise of tinted glass enforcement could contact any of its 130 branches for free legal representation.

SPIDEL estimated that the police could illegally generate about ₦3 billion monthly from the so-called permit, turning the Force into “a revenue agency rather than a law enforcement body.”

In its originating summons, the NBA asked the court to determine whether the police have the statutory authority to enforce mandatory registration or renewal of tinted glass permits, impose fees or charges for such permits without an enabling Act of the National Assembly, or seize and detain vehicles for alleged violations of the Motor Vehicles (Prohibition of Tinted Glass) Act of 1991.

ation urged the courl, null, and void, arguing that the 1991 Decree is inconsistent with the 1999 Constitution’s provisions on fundamental rights.

t also sought an order of perpetual injunction restraining the police from further arresting, extorting, or harassing motorists over tinted glass.