Chief Olusola Daniel Agidi, the President, Driving School Association of Nigeria ( DSAN ), has warned the motoring public against presenting fake certificates for processing Drivers’ Licence.
The warning was contained in a press statement made available to DAILY INDEPENDENT, stating that the Federal Road Safety Corps FRSC, was established to ensure safety on Nigeria roads.
The statement further reads, “In February 2010, FRSC introduced, ‘Driving School Standardization Programme’ (DSSP), and made it mandatory that all fresh driver’s licence applicant must register with any of the FRSC accredited Driving Schools to acquire quality Drivers training with 26 sessions of training after which the applicant will obtain the General Certificate Of Driver’s Education.
“The introduction of the DSSP programme aims at reducing the rate of road crashes through quality Drivers training and to eradicate fake production of Driving licences, because the biometrics of the applicant starts from Driving School.” The statement added.
Stressing that the Nigeria Drivers’ licence can be used to drive for a short period of time, as it is obtained in other countries like the USA, Canada, and the United Kingdom because of the security features in it.
Chief Olusola through the statement revealed, “Unfortunately, unscrupulous elements are manipulating the DSSP certificate by writing the statutory ‘Computer Based Test’ CBT on behalf of some of the applicants, while the system captures their face of the agent who wrote the test, but the applicants passport photograph will be pasted on the certificate and criminally presented to FRSC personnel at the Driver’s licence capturing centres.
“Anyone who has gotten his or her Driver’s licence without his or her appearance in the Driving School for physical capturing is carrying a fake certificate.
“The worst of all, some of the FRSC personnel at the Drivers licence capturing centres are culprits, because it takes two to tango. They know that the certificate is fake but they cover it up. Though, no system is perfect, but once a loophole is discovered, the loophole should be blocked with immediate effect. The worrisome part is that, some of the FRSC personnel, VIO, Staff of Internal Revenue Services and Driving School operators are accomplished racketeers.” Olusola added.
Revealing that as operators and major stakeholders in the Driver’s training and licensing, “we have suggested to the FRSC Corps Marshal that there should be a handshake between Driving School CBT and Driver’s licence portal which will put fake certificates to rest but they have not yielded.
“If FRSC fails to block the loophole as a matter of urgency, Nigeria Driver’s licence may lose value among the comity of nations.” He said.
He therefore called on the DSS, FRSC Intelligent Officers, and the Nigeria Police to go after the culprits and bring them to book.
