Following the spate of insecurity and uncertainty spreading across the country, wealthy Nigerians have spent a total of N3.6 billion on the purchase of 62 armoured vehicles of various make for personal use in the last two years. Investigations carried out by our correspondent revealed that the purchase, which amounted to $9.84 million, covered 12 armoured mini-buses, seven armoured luxury sedans and 43 full vehicle size Sport Utility Vans (SUVs).
A representative of Irelandbased Armoured VIP, Ruslan Boyko, disclosed to our correspondent. He said the company sold the listed vehicles directly to its clients in Nigeria in the last two years.
Boyko said, “I can’t tell you the names of our clients, but we sold directly to our clients in Nigeria 12 armoured mini-buses, seven armoured luxury sedans and 43 full vehicles size SUVs in the last two years. “Our clients pay customs duty themselves, so I can only tell you the export price they were sold for, which is $9,840,000.”
“Armoured VIP” is widely regarded as the leading manufacturer and supplier of the world’s finest quality armoured cars in Europe.
The company’s website, www.armouredvip.com/ en/, also revealed that a good purchase would cost at least $ 200 million, adding that the price could bew up to $750 million for the technical re-equipment of the car.
Although Nigerians have penchant for tastefully finished automobiles, the threat posed by bandits and political opponents, has prompted the rich not to rely much on the nation’s security apparatus. Nigeria, in the wake of the current democratic dispensation has overtaken Iraq, Afghanistan and Latin American countries as the world’s biggest importer of bullet proof (armoured) vehicles.
It is estimated that about 30 per cent of customers for armoured vehicles worldwide come from Nigeria.
Besides the current revelation, manufacturers of armoured vehicles have exported an estimated 800 to 900 units to Nigeria at the cost of more than N60 billion. In 2011 alone, Nigeria imported 600 and 1,000 armoured vehicles, coming behind Iraq, Afghanistan and Latin America. While the position of Iraq and Afghanistan as major importers of armoured vehicles is understandable because of the war situation in those regions, not a few have wondered why Nigeria should be number one in the world.
Describing the position of Nigeria on armoured vehicle importation rating as no exaggeration, Huan Ka Kyui, a high ranking official of an armoured vehicle manufacturing company in Thailand, said that the first time his company received a request for an armoured car from a Nigerian was as far back as in 2003.
Since then, he said the number had increased steadily. John Graham, Brand Manager Armoured, Military and AVM (Armoured Vehicle Modifier) Programme for the Jaguar Land Rover group, had once described Nigeria as the emerging market for anti-ballistic vehicles. Although cases of high profile assassinations inside moving vehicles are not rampart in the country, Nigeria politicians would rather prepare for such eventuality than leave everything to chance.
A few years ago, a former Benue State Governor, George Akume, escaped an assassination attempt on his way to Kaduna State for a Northern Governors Forum en route Abuja when armed bandits fired into his SUV, which led to his friend being killed. In the same vein, a former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), Malam Nuhu Ribadu, once revealed that he survived an assassination attempt as the bullet fired into his bullet proof vehicle could not penetrate.
Last year, the Senate was caught in a web of scandal when it was reported that it procured a single unit of bullet proof Range Rover Sports for N298 million. In its defence, Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Publicity Sen. Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, said that the vehicle was procured at $298,000 (N49.1 million) and not N298 million as was reported in the media.
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