What appeal court ruling against VIO impounding vehicles mean for motorists

The court of appeal in Abuja on Thursday upheld a judgment of the Federal High Court, which barred the Directorate of Road Traffic Services (DRTS), also known as the Vehicle Inspection Office (VIO), from stopping motorists, impounding vehicles, or imposing fines on road users.

The court’s ruling on VIO, restrained the directorate and its agents from further violating motorists’ rights to freedom of movement, presumption of innocence, and ownership of property.

Over the years, VIO officials have been unlawfully confiscating vehicles and fining motorists on Nigerian roads; however, this new ruling has restricted them from carrying out every act of such.

On December 12, 2023, Marshal Abubakar, human rights lawyer, took VIO officials to court after his vehicle was stopped and confiscated without any lawful justification.

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Last year, Evelyn Maha, the presiding judge, in the suit filed by Abubakar,ruled that the VIO, which operates under the control of the minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), has no legal authority to stop or impound vehicles and to fine drivers.

The court described the actions of the VIO as oppressive and unlawful. It issued a perpetual injunction restraining the directorate and its agents from further violations of motorists’ rights to freedom of movement.

According to the FCT Directorate of Road Traffic Services (DRTS) mandate and in accordance with the Road Traffic Act, CAP 548 of the Federation (1990) and Transport Regulation as gazetted in 2005 and reviewed in 2022, the DRTS was established in 2001 to perform Motor Vehicle Administration (MVA) functions for the Federal Capital Territory.

These mandates include: planning, controlling, managing all aspects of vehicle registration, documentation, licensing, vehicle inspection, testing and certification, driver training, and licensing.

In addition, traffic monitoring, management, and control, highway and street patrols are conducted to enforce relevant traffic laws and regulations, road transport monitoring and control, motor vehicle-related trades control, registration, and licensing.

According to the ruling, only a court of competent jurisdiction could impose sanctions or fines, noting that the respondents violated the applicant’s constitutional rights under Section 42 of the 1999 Constitution and Article 14 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.

The court also stated that the respondents lacked statutory powers to impound vehicles or impose fines, adding that such actions breached motorists’ rights to a fair hearing and freedom of movement under various sections of the constitution and provisions of the African Charter.

This means that VIO cannot issue fines or penalties, seize or impound any vehicle, and motorists who experience such actions may have legal grounds to challenge them.

Marshal, represented by a legal team led by Femi Falana, human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), had sought N500 million in damages and an apology in three national newspapers from the defendants.

The court instead awarded N2.5 million in damages.

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VIO moves to Supreme Court after losing appeal

The Department of Road Traffic Services, also known as VIO, stated that it will certainly appeal a judgment barring it from imposing fines or impounding vehicles of offending motorists, according to media reports.

“I don’t know why we Nigerians don’t like to be corrected. Just look at Airport Road—they have turned that place practically into a one-way. You cannot enforce, you cannot impound, but if you give them a ticket, they won’t come to pay. What do you want us to do? The thing is not funny,” Deborah Osho, acting director of DRTS, said,

Reacting to the judgment, Osho disclosed that despite alternative enforcement methods, such as issuing tickets, offenders owed more than N409m, adding that traffic could not be well coordinated without strict enforcement.

“We don’t even impound like that. What we do is, if you commit an offence, whether you take it or go away, you are already captured, and your bill will be sent to you.

“If I give you my laptop now, we have almost N409 million not paid, because they won’t come to pay, and because we cannot enforce our arrest or do anything,” she said.

Juliet Onyema is a transport journalist who reports on Nigeria’s transport and automobile industry. She covers emerging Electric Vehicles (EVs), ranging from adoption to usage, automobile firms and transport policies which affect them, and also recurring trends affecting commuters’ mobility interstate and intrastate.

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