Delta residents yet to collect over 4,651 permanent driver’s licences

Since the beginning of the year, only about 18,962 permanent driver’s licences have been collected.

The Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), Delta Command on Wednesday said that no fewer than 4,651 permanent driver’s licences were yet to be collected in the state.

Muftau Irekeola, the state Sector Commander, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Asaba. Irekeola said that as of December 2023, the total number of uncollected driver’s licences stood at 3,953, adding that since the commencement of 2024, about 23,513 have been produced.

He added that since the beginning of the year, only about 18,962 permanent driver’s licences have been collected. The sector commander frowned at motorists who process their driver’s licences and never bother to go back to collect them.

"In spite of the efforts of the staff of the drivers’ licence centre reaching out to the owners through their next of kin, the owners still do not go to pick up their driver's licence.

"Some just get comfortable with the temporary drivers’ licence issued to them, while most people don’t just create time out of their busy schedule to pick up their driver’s licence,” Irekeola said.

He also said that possessing a valid licence was a requirement for driving in the country, and warned that driving without a licence endangered the lives of road users and constituted a traffic infraction.

"Whoever is driving on the road without a driver’s licence and an accident occurs and pre-adventures there is loss of life, such a person will be tried in court as a murderer instead of manslaughter.

"If they have a driver’s licence and it is expired they will not be treated as murder because he or she has undergone a driver's test and has a driver’s licence even though it has expired.

"The Command wants drivers with temporary licences to collect their permanent driver’s licence at the motor licencing office where they had their biometric captured,” Irekeola stated.

The sector commander said that the command would be collaborating soon with the board of internal revenue on “operation show your licence” to check drivers’ driving without a licence in Asaba.