The people of Abia have expressed concern over the non-availability of the state number plates.

Our checks revealed that vehicle owners seeking to register or revalidate their old number plates acquired them from Imo, Ebonyi, Enugu, Bayelsa and Rivers states.

A top official of the Abia Board of Internal Revenue told our correspondent that the state was losing huge revenue from lack of the state vehicle number plates.

“What states like Imo, Ebonyi, Rivers, and Enugu make as revenue from the sales of vehicle number plates in Abia monthly is over N2 million each.

“We do not understand the reason why the case of Abia is different because those concern always say that there is problem with the production of state number plates,’’ he observed.

A prospective vehicle number plate seeker, who gave his name as Eze Ndukwe, told our correspondent that he personally wanted the Abia number plates that started with ‘UMA’.

“This is about a month I acquired a new vehicle and refused to register it with other state’s number plate because I want that UMA and yet each time I come here they ask me to come next week,’’ he said.

He expressed regrets that the State Government always complains of paucity of funds, but would not take advantage of genuine revenue window to shore its internally-generated revenue.

Our correspondent reports that Mrs Blessing Nwagba, representing Aba North, spoke against the lack of Abia number plates.

Nwagba noted that the number plates was veritable source of revenue for government and called on the relevant agency to step up action in the supply of the material.

Mr Chiedozie Umeh, the state Chairman, Board of Internal Revenue, told our correspondent that the board was making effort to provide the number plates.

“You know that it is not the responsibility of BIRs to produce vehicle number plates.

“It is the duty of Federal Road Safety Commission to produce vehicle number plates while the boards sell them to the public,’’ he said.