FCTA declares 21,438 Abuja vehicles unroadworthy
The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has disclosed that the Magistrate of a road Mobile Court has prosecuted roughly 1,120 traffic offenders and declared 21,438 vehicles unroadworthy between January and November 2022 in Abuja.
Speaking on Friday at its annual press conference, Secretary of Transportation for FCTA, Abdullahi Candido, said the startling statistic was acquired through the thorough inspection that the vehicles underwent at the Computerised Vehicle Inspection Centres.
He said out of the 37,572 vehicles inspected, only 16,198 were deemed worthy to be used on the road.
Candido said the cause of the high failure is connected to the country’s sporadic importation of used cars known as “Tokunbo.”
He noted that most of these vehicles were given face-lifting treatment by their initial owners, after being involved in an accident or flooding in their countries of origin.
Candido acknowledged that bad road network in some parts of the city and poor maintenance culture contribute significantly to the failure of some of the vehicles, and revealed that the Directorate of Road Traffic Services (DRTS) has been mandated to subject all vehicles to the Computerised test before car documents renewal.
Independent Newspaper reports that a total of 3,532 out of 54,620 applicants were denied driver’s licences because they failed the test.
The report added that within the year, more than 4,401 errant drivers in Abuja have been sent to compulsory correctional training to ameliorate traffic-related offences in the capital city.
About 850 dispatch riders were also made to attend the mandatory training of the DRTS, before being issued with a Riders Certification Card.
