Former Petroleum Minister, Ibe
Kachikwu has denied smuggling a car stolen from a Jaguar assembly in the United
Kingdom into America.
Peoples Gazette reported that a
United States court ordered the confiscation of the vehicle found in Kachikwu’s
possession.
The 2007 Jaguar XKR was taken
from its facility in Birmingham, England. The manufacturer said the vehicle was
made for use in the Czech Republic.
The complaint sheet informed the
court that the vehicle, which did not meet U.S. safety standards, was stolen and
shipped to Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial hub.
The XKR was seized on June 15,
2011 at the Los Angeles/Long Beach seaport in California, United States.
Kachikwu admitted to the
forfeiture of the vehicle and agreed to pay $10,000 instead of the vehicle being
confiscated. He maintained he was not part of the theft.
The court held that the vehicle
was subject to forfeiture in line with federal laws.
Consuelo Bland Marshall, Judge of
the United States Court for the Central District of California, delivered the
judgment.
“Claimant has acknowledged that
the government had probable cause for the seizure of the defendant vehicle”,
the court document read.
“The theft of the defendant
vehicle from the manufacturer, as alleged in the complaint, occurred before claimant’s
acquisition of the vehicle from a dealership and did not involve claimant.”
Kachikwu was the Group Managing
Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and Executive
Vice Chairman and General Counsel of Exxon-Mobil.
In a statement, Kachikwu’s aide,
Lawson Chibuike, noted that the vehicle stolen was from Jamaica, not the UK,
and that Jaguar told the District Court of Central California.
He said Kachikwu bought the
Jaguar car in 2009 from Dazz Motors Nigeria Ltd., whose MD was Emmanuel Jack,
and had an office in Victoria Island, Lagos.
The former minister, he
confirmed, paid fully for the car and was registered in his name. Chibuike
recalled that after some period of use, Kachikwu exported it to the U.S. “as a
gift to a relation”.
Chibuike admitted that the
customs impounded the car because it was not built for American roads, based on
emission control reasons and on the suspicion that it was stolen.
“Dr. Kachikwu gave them the
details of the car and they reached out to the car dealer, who corroborated his
narration and validated his innocence.
“However, while it couldn’t be
proven and established that the car might have been stolen in Europe, it was
based on the emission control concerns that an administrative ruling was given
in the US that the car be taken back to Nigeria.”
The statement said once the
customs determined there was no reason to continue to impound the car or charge
the dealer, “the car was released to Kachikwu, who returned it to the dealer
and got a refund”.
Chibuike added that the matter
happened years before President Muhammadu Buhari appointed his principal a
minister.
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