Nigeria’s police force has launched a sweeping national enforcement campaign targeting vehicles bearing covered, altered or missing number plates, as the country’s top law enforcement official moves to tighten security across a nation grappling with persistent criminal violence.
The operation, ordered by Inspector-General of Police Olatunji Disu, is unfolding simultaneously in several states, with officers empowered to impound non-compliant vehicles and bring their owners before the courts. Authorities say the campaign is a direct response to intelligence showing that criminals routinely exploit unregistered or deliberately obscured plates to evade detection after attacks.
In Rivers State, the state police commissioner, Olugbenga Adepoju, took the unusual step of leading enforcement patrols personally through Port Harcourt, accompanying traffic officers and senior command staff to key intersections along Aba Road and Ikwerre Road. A mobile court was convened on site at the Mile 1 Divisional Police Headquarters to process those arrested — a measure reflecting the urgency with which authorities are approaching the exercise.
“Vehicles operating without registration plates or with covered or obscured number plates will be impounded and their owners sanctioned accordingly,” Adepoju told officers during the operation, adding that visible plates were critical to solving hit-and-run incidents and recovering stolen vehicles.
The crackdown extends to Kogi and Delta states, where commissioners have directed area commanders, divisional police officers and tactical units to enforce compliance across their jurisdictions. In Delta, spokesperson SP Bright Edafe warned that vehicles with tampered registration details would face legal proceedings, while Kogi’s command urged fleet owners and transport operators to ensure their documentation was current and available for inspection at all times.
Adepoju used the occasion to address concerns about overreach, cautioning officers explicitly against extorting motorists — a practice that has long undermined public trust in Nigerian policing. He also moved to clarify the scope of a separate overnight restriction on tricycles and motorcycles, confirming that minibuses, locally known as Keke buses, remained free to operate after 10pm, though subject to monitoring. Security data, he said, pointed to tricycles and motorcycles as vehicles of choice for “one-chance” robbery gangs, in which passengers are robbed at gunpoint after being lured into seemingly legitimate rides.
The nationwide exercise reflects growing pressure on Nigeria’s security establishment to demonstrate operational effectiveness amid persistent concerns over kidnapping, armed robbery and the movement of illegal weapons across the country.
