A Federal High Court in Abuja has restrained the Nigeria Police Force and the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) from imposing fines on motorists for breaches of the Third Party Motor Vehicle Insurance Act. The ruling was delivered on Friday by Justice H. J. Yilwa in a suit filed by human rights lawyer Deji Adeyanju. The court held that while the police and FRSC have statutory authority to enforce the Act, they do not have the power to impose penalties without a court order. The judgment named the police and FRSC as first and third respondents, respectively. Justice Yilwa's decision clarified the limits of enforcement powers under the law. The court's order takes immediate effect.
The court's ruling exposes a contradiction in how the FRSC and police have penalised motorists without judicial backing, despite lacking explicit legal authority to do so. Nigerians who paid such fines under the previous enforcement practice may now question the legality of those payments. The judgment directly affects how traffic violations linked to insurance coverage are handled going forward. Enforcement agencies must now align their actions with the court's interpretation of the law.
💡 NaijaBuzz is an AI-assisted news aggregator. This content is curated from third-party sources — NaijaBuzz is not the original publisher and is not responsible for the accuracy of source reporting. The NaijaBuzz Take is AI-assisted editorial opinion only, not established fact. All persons mentioned are presumed innocent until proven guilty by a court of competent jurisdiction. NaijaBuzz does not endorse the views expressed in source articles.
