The Ebonyi Police Command says it will start impounding and prosecuting drivers of vehicles with factory fitted tinted glasses who have not obtained the newly approved permit.

George Okafor, its Public Relations Officer, told the News Agency of Nigeria in Abakaliki on Monday that the new permit, with unique security features, was to prevent hoodlums from using such vehicles for crimes.

According to him, the new permit contains bio data of the car owner which includes the photograph, finger prints, name and date of birth, among others.

“The Inspector General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris, on assumption of duty as the new IGP, left no one in doubt on his readiness to fight crime to standstill, hence he came up with the idea of computerised tinted glass permit.

“The idea is to enable the police to have vital information about persons being issued with the tinted car permit which will assist in checking usage of such cars for crimes.

“Many suspects have been known to hide inside tinted glass cars to commit heinous crimes and this is what the police want to checkmate,” Mr. Okafor said.

He said that the command had carried out sensitisation and enlightenment campaigns through radio and television jingles as well as advertisements.

He said that the online registration and issuance of the permit, done at the command headquarters, were free and urged motorists with factory fitted tinted glass to obtain the permit.

“Both the online registration and issuance of the permit are done at our headquarters here and I want to use this opportunity to advise people who use tinted car glasses who have not obtained the new one to do so.

“We have created enough awareness on the issue and the police want cooperation of the affected people in this regard since security business is everyone’s business,’’ he said.

The spokesman assured of the commitment of the police in maintaining the peace, law and order during the ember period.

He said that criminals would have no place to operate in the state before and during the Christmas period.

(NAN)