Thursday, March 10, 2011
[size=14pt]'You can't tint glasses anymore'[/size]

By Alex Olise, David Ibemere and Jumoke Uji


Mixed reactions greet ban on tinted glasses as enforcement begins in Lagos next week

AS far as 28-year-old Kunle Ajayi is concerned, the news was rather one of the last he wanted to hear, at least, not now.



'You can't tint glasses anymore'

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"Why can't the authorities not wait for a few months, at least?" he asked angrily.


What he meant was that in those few months he would have enjoyed the Toyota Camry, his first car, before the announcement that all non-factory tinted-cars were barred from the nation's roads.


He told The Guardian: "It was not really my idea until after I got the car and drove to see my friend John, who lives in Surulere and drives a Nissan, the glasses of which he later tinted


"It was John who said that tinted cars separated the men from the boys and that girls just loved cars with tinted glasses.


"He took me to the same workshop where his glasses were tinted, and I must tell you, it cost me quite a lot to get the night-blue tint you see on the car.


"Indeed, the tinted glass made both the car and the owner rather more popular, which, as it is now, seems to be very short-lived, no thanks to the announcement."


The announcement that seems to have upset the young man and dampened his excitement over his new car came from the Minister of Police Affairs, Mr. Humphrey Abah, who recently, directed the police to begin the enforcement of the law banning vehicles with tinted glasses from the roads.


However, cars with factory-fitted tinted glasses are exempted from the directive.

He added that only the President, the Vice-President, governors, the Senate President, his Deputy and Majority Leader as well as the Speaker, House of Representatives were permitted to use tinted-glass cars in the country.


Others, including judges, top military and police brass are not allowed by law to use tinted glasses on their cars, and that they should, therefore, remove them to avoid embarrassment.


The minister stated that the current situation where the windshield and side glasses of seven out of 10 vehicles were tinted posed a great challenge to security personnel as they found it difficult to identify occupants and contents of such heavily filmed cars.

http://odili.net/news/source/2011/mar/10/15.html

Just when you think they are not coming up with something ridiculous,