That period marked the tail end of our economic famine of austerity and Structural Adjustment Programme. The upper middle class (including the fake upper middle class in the toga of 419 fraudsters) had just turned to fairly (and unfairly) used imported vehicles because brand new ones had gone almost completely out of the reach of most people.

That was the beginning of the Tokunboh cars revolution. Used-car dealers sprang up, first in Lagos and later on, other major cities of Nigeria. Today every street corner, barber shop or mechanic dump has one junk of Tokunboh brand or the other parked with a “for sale” tag nestling on top of it. A junk used-car sales madness has taken over the land.

For as little as N50,000, anyone can put one on our roads, display his bunch of car keys as he goes and speak rhapsodically and loudly about “my car” (though he needs to spend most of his time and money on mechanics, “rewires”, panel beaters and at junk markets for old used motor parts).

At the slightest drop of the rain, major cities come to a halt because everyone has his own “my car” on our poorly maintained and almost ill-policed roads.

The result is the kind of thing that happened on Friday, September 26th 2008 in Lagos when the stampede to make the fast buck for the five-day holiday bonanza forced everybody to hit the roads only to meet a heavy rain and hold-ups that kept most people on the roads till 1 am the following day.

We are not talking about hold-ups today. We are talking about cross-border car armed bandits who have returned. As I was saying, the influx of these used cars and luxury SUVs in the early 1990’s led to a circle of vehicle round-tripping of sorts between Lagos and Cotonou in Benin Republic.

You bought your car in Lagos. Armed bandits stalked you in the traffic and threatened you at gunpoint. You hesitated to hand over your keys and they shot you dead. They took it to Benin where Nigerians went and bought it off them at giveaway prices. One chap from my home town lost his life and Mercedes 500 SEL car one Sunday morning in 2001 at a carwash, just 50 metres behind the walls of the Police College in Ikeja, where opportunistic car thieves from Benin accosted him.

People lost their vehicles while worshipping in churches and mosques. Thieves know that places of worship are ideal for their operations. In the first place, a man deep in devotional mood least expects to be marauded. Second, even when a thief is caught in the act in such places, his chances of being decorated with the burning “necklace” are much reduced for obvious reasons.

Car thieves were thriving in Lagos and environs for two main reasons. One was that big time stolen car barons had sprung up in our neighbouring countries, especially Benin, Togo and Niger Republic. One of these was Alhaji Ahmani Tijani, a “business man” from Niger Republic who pitched his operational headquarters in Cotonou.

Two was that some rotten law enforcement officers became the hirelings of these barons and colluded in ensuring that both the stolen vehicles and their stealers were never caught in the long ride through the porous borders.

TELL Magazine once did an insightful cover story on how high level police officers were involved in the racket. We continued to suffer losses in property and human lives. We cried and no one listened to us.

TELL’s cover story made little or no impact with the authorities. But relief was to come our way when bandits hit the wrong target in 2002. Family friends of Dr. Iyabo Obasanjo, the first daughter of then President Obasanjo, came visiting her. On their way home, they were set upon by trigger-happy evil men from Benin who wiped out two innocent children.

Obasanjo, in a fit of personal vengeance, sent then Inspector General of Police, Tafa Balogun on a lightening raid to Cotonou. The government of Benin was completely overawed and Tijani was fished out like a wet rat from the gutter and brought to Nigeria for trial which is ongoing. The ring was smashed and car robbery took an all-time nosedive especially in Lagos and environs.

Six years later, and with middle class Nigerians now able to buy brand new cars, car robbery is back – with a vengeance. And so is the incidence of loss of lives by car owners

Groups of riff-raff and bobtail bandits looking for easy money are now stopping car owners at gunpoint, herding occupants to the backs of their cars (or boots) and driving them to the bush paths of border zones in Ogun State, where the lucky ones are let go just before the bandits make it across the border.

It simply tells you that new Ahmani Tijani’s have sprung up and found willing lackeys among Nigerian law enforcement officers. That is the only way the evil ring can operate with such ease.

We are hoping the relevant authorities are not waiting for relations or friends of the mighty and powerful to be hit again before the law-enforcement agents wake up to their responsibilities.

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