Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) had requested the Clerk of the National Assembly, Mohammed Sani-Omolori, to retrieve the official vehicle identification plates from about 69 senators and 151 members of the House of Representatives who failed to return to the 9th National Assembly.

The FRSC Public Education Officer, Corps Commander, Bisi Kareem,said in a statement that :

“We have written to the clerk of the National Assembly to direct former lawmakers to return official number plates issued to them. We expect the clerk to reach out to them; we cannot get across to them ourselves, that was why we wrote to the National Assembly about it.”

Forty-two of the senators lost out in October last year at their parties’ primaries while twenty-seven others were defeated at the National Assembly elections.

Apart from former Senate President Bukola Saraki of PDP, Kwara Central, others expected to return their official vehicle number plates are Godswill Akpabio of APC , Akwa Ibom West; Nazif Gamawa of PDP, Bauchi; Rafiu Ibrahim of PDP, Kwara South; Tayo Alasoadura of APC, Ondo Central and Yele Omogunwa of PDP, Ondo South, among others.

When asked about the deadline for the return of the plates and sanctions for failure, Kazeem said he would not speak on that.

Findings have, however, showns that many former lawmakers and ex-officials were still using the official number plates.

The immediate past senator who represented Oyo South Senatorial District in the Eight Senate, Adesoji Akanbi, said the senators who were not returning to the National Assembly, were expected to return the number plates.

He said:

“The number plates have an expiry date, hence there is no basis for holding on to it after June 2019 because those who issued it said it’s between 2015 and 2019.

“Although some may just remove it and throw it away for record purposes, it is better to return it to the National Assembly management which distributed them to us.”