Following our last week’s story on the arrests of some West Africans resident in the United State of America (USA) by that country’s Police for being members of a car theft syndicate which specializes in serial theft and subsequent shipment of the stolen vehicles to some ports in West Africa countries, especially the RORO port of Tin Can Island port in Lagos, reactions have confirmed that the illicit practice is indeed rampant.
Following our last week’s story on the arrests of some West Africans resident in the United State of America (USA) by that country’s Police for being members of a car theft syndicate which specializes in serial theft and subsequent shipment of the stolen vehicles to some ports in West Africa countries, especially the RORO port of Tin Can Island port in Lagos, reactions have confirmed that the illicit practice is indeed rampant.
Insider sources within the car importation and sale fraternity in Lagos told Shipping Position Daily immediately after the story of arrest and arraignment in the USA of some members of the syndicate became public knowledge that indeed Tin Can Island port is notorious for receiving stolen vehicles that are shipped into Nigeria from the US.
Obviously aware of the global attention that the story has drawn to Nigeria and the security implication of being identified, our sources however pleaded anonymity.
Tracing the journey of a stolen car, an insider disclosed that “most of the vehicles were not actually stolen at gunpoint, but were basically hired from car rentals overseas by blacks before shipping to Nigeria.”
“Operators of car rental business in America are the major victims of the car snatching syndicate even as they are aware that some of the vehicles are traceable to Nigeria but prefer to silence about the theft”, he disclosed.
Sources disclosed to Shipping Position Daily in Lagos, last week that the first generation of fairly used auto dealers in Nigeria took the advantage of shipping large units of used vehicles into the country which in turn made them popular, famous and rich.
Another source confirmed that Nigerian ports have been known for receiving such cargoes since the 1980’s. He said some Nigerians who are involved in the deal always moved from one state to the other in search of where to hire vehicles with the motive of shipping them to Nigeria.
“The practice worked perfectly for them and created the vacuum for Nigerians to buy tokunboh cars in the late 1980’s and early 1990s”, he reminiscence.
“Even with the introduction of vehicle tracking system and all other anti theft devices to secure vehicles moving in and around Europe and America, Nigerians in the oversea still succeeded in crafting a means whereby the vehicles find their way to the ports in Nigeria and ports of neighbouring West African countries”, he added.
He confirmed that there are some ports in America that are notorious for such deals and that they collude with owners of garages, warehouses and auto shops through which the shipment papers are perfected.
Our sources disclosed that one of the ways to identify a stolen car is that they normally come with a single key; without a spare or they come with no key at all, the key will be duplicated before selling to the auto dealers in town who will in turn sell to the unsuspecting end user.
According to them, “most car rentals or vehicle hiring companies abroad, are very much aware that their stolen vehicles have been shipped to Nigeria, but cannot come over to reclaim ownership, because of the cost of coming down to Nigeria compared to the average cost of a stolen vehicle which is about $6000, or less’’.
“Our brothers abroad do not have time to snatch vehicles from the owners or collect your vehicle at gunpoint, but what they do is go to car rental companies from one state to another with false identities and successfully ship the vehicles to Nigeria’’, one of our source confirmed.
He also explained that some of these vehicles find their ways into Nigeria through what he called ‘repossess’.
This, according to him, happens when a car buyer defaults in the payment for hire purchase. When you default for a period of time, the company collects the vehicle and later re sell to an African who may in turn offer it for sale.
They also disclosed that stolen vehicles that find their ways to Nigeria are cheaper than the ones that are bought and imported legitimately.
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