An Open Letter by Dr. Tonye Clinton Jaja
Hon. Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Sir,
Last year, the National Bureau of Statistics-NBS published a report which states that the number of persons kidnapped annually in Nigeria is more than the 2,200,000 total population of the Kingdom of Lesotho.
It struck me because I am currently resident in the said Kingdom of Lesotho.
Here in Lesotho, the majority of the officers of the police are engaged in tackling more serious crimes and not traffic offences.
Before I qualified as a lawyer, I spent one year studying criminal law, wherein we were taught that there is a hierarchy of crimes. They are classified into misdemeanours and felonies. Misdemeanours are what we call petty crimes in layman’s terms, whereas felonies are more serious crimes for which an offender can be sent to jail or given the death penalty.
Traffic offences are usually MISDEMEANOURS for which fines are imposed.
Therefore, it beats the imagination of the right-thinking members of the Nigerian public why you have decided to devote so much time, resources and ingenuity to the traffic offence of tinted glass permits.
This matter is reported online at:https://www.thecable.ng/for-meticulous-scrutiny-egbetokun-extends-tinted-glass-permit-deadline-to-october-2/
The truth is that the majority of kidnappers and Boko Haram terrorists do not drive around town inside cars with tinted glasses. They are found on the highways where they ambush and kidnap road travellers.
Why don’t you deploy the same technology and resources to police the highways where these kidnappers and Boko Haram terrorists are mostly to be found?
I come in peace!!!
Yours faithfully,
Dr. Tonye Clinton Jaja,
12th August 2025.
The views expressed by contributors are strictly personal and not of Law & Society Magazine.
True talk — if the same energy used for tinted glass permits was channelled into tackling Boko Haram and kidnappers, Nigeria would be much safer.