By Everest Onyewuchi
Published: Saturday, 21 Feb 2009

Some government officials and politicians have started placing orders for armour-plated vehicles in anticipation of violence during the 2011 election. Although ‘ordinary’ bullet-proof vehicles are becoming assets of choice among high profile Nigerians now, Saturday Punch gathered, the armoured vehicles that are being ordered for the 2011 elections are not only capable of stopping bullets, they are also built to withstand certain categories of explosives. These vehicles have a range of unusual faetures including electric shock door handles and radiator protection.

An American company that specialises in producing armoured vehicles, Texas Armoring Corporation, disclosed this in an e-mail response to our correspondent’s enquiries on Wednesday.

The disclosure came on the heels of a recent admission by at least one governor, Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State, that he had placed an order for an armoured vehicle in preparation for governorship election in the state next year. In the mail, TAC’s Executive Vice-President, Marketing, Jason Forston, said his company was working closely with “high-profile Nigerian government officials and key business leaders to help implement security plans.” Forston, however, refused to confirm if Governor Obi would be buying his armoured car from his company.

When asked to reveal the identities of the government officials and politicians that have placed orders for armoured vehicles, Forston replied, “Because of privacy and security concerns, we can’t release names of individuals who have placed orders.

“However, our clients are generally wealthy businessmen and women (MDs/CEOs), diplomats, politicians, government officials, celebrities, or other at-risk individuals,” he wrote.

Forston wrote that about 100 vehicles were being processed for Nigerian government officials.

This, he said, were in the range “of a $10,000,000 - $20,000,000 USD purchase. Most orders are for 2-3 units, which ranges from about $400,000 - $600,000 (N60m-N90m).” Saturday Punch’s analysis shows that one of the implications of Forston’s disclosure is that government officials alone had committed between N6bn and N9bn to the purchase of different grades of armoured vehicles. He was, however, silent on the amount that politicians who are not in government were going to spend.

TAC had early in the week posted a statement on its website, in which it called on potential clients in Nigeria to place their orders early. TAC, which is said to have supplied multiple armoured vehicles for numerous West African heads of state, also announced that it had began to take orders for the 2011 state and federal elections.

Some of the vehicles that are to be supplied to TAC’s Nigerian clients include Toyota Camry and Mercedes-Benz S550 cars; and large Sport Utility Vehicles like the Toyota Landcruiser and Cadillac Escalade.

“Our passenger vehicles can also be armoured up to levels B6 (AK-47 & M-16 protection) and B7 (Armor-piercing rifle protection),” Forston wrote.

TAC also revealed that some of Nigeria’s top bankers formed the company’s client base in the country.

“We have sold vehicles to nearly all of the top Nigerian banks. Again, I never release client names, but if you look at the top five banks in Nigeria (for example, the three banks advertised on http://www.punchng.com (today)you will see our clients.

“We’ve sold cars to nearly all of the large multinationals in Nigeria and large domestic companies. I can’t give names, but if you look at BusinessWorld 100’s recent list you will see many of our clients,” the TAC boss further explained.

TAC, however, warned its Nigerian and other clients that it will not replicate the type of armour in the official vehicles of the United States of America President, Barack Obama.

“With Barack Obama’s recent ascension to the White House, there has been a great deal of talk and speculation with regard to the new presidential limousine. Since the vehicle was officially released for duty last week, we’ve had numerous inquiries as to whether we could produce something similar,” the President/CEO of TAC, Trent Kimball, said in a statement dated January 28, 2009.

The Bayelsa State Commissioner for Information, Strategy and Orientation, Chief Asara Asara, told Saturday Punch that there were only two armoured vehichles on the governor’s fleet in the Government House, but he didn’t say when they were bought.

http://www.punchontheweb.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art200902213131246

So much money could be saved if all those Nigerian politicians would simply visit Juju witch-doctors, who would equip them all with a few smoke-dried animal parts that would inspire fake confidence about ballistic protection, such that when the vehicle occupants are killed in a hail of gunfire, they would go to heaven in a very relaxed frame of mind, which is certainly preferable to dying in a state of absolute terror.

Yeeeppaa! _{hands on my head}. The Legis[b]looters[/b] and execu[b]thieves[/b] want to opress us with their illegally acquired wealth. Are we (the masses) safe?

I do not see what the problem is. They are merely responding to a growing threat in Nigeria. If they are law makers and those running the country, will anyone here want to begrudge them of their safety? After all, criminals are getting bolder in their ways in our country.

Brazil is a place that we need to look at. Armour plated vehicles are sold their in hot cakes. This is in response to the high levels of crime and kidnapping going on there. Nigeria is starting to enter that "high risk level" phase, so it can only be logical that the people respond with spending money on such items.

If you ever sat in an Amour protected car or seen the damage it can withstand then perhaps it will all make sense. To put things into perspective a window shield of an Amour car can take repeated rounds of Hollow tips bullets without damage or injury to the occupant. Seriously, who wont want something like that in a crime-ridden nation?

ElRazur:

I do not see what the problem is. They are merely responding to a growing threat in Nigeria. If they are law makers and those running the country, will anyone here want to begrudge them of their safety? After all, criminals are getting bolder in their ways in our country.

Brazil is a place that we need to look at. Armour plated vehicles are sold their in hot cakes. This is in response to the high levels of crime and kidnapping going on there. Nigeria is starting to enter that "high risk level" phase, so it can only be logical that the people respond with spending money on such items.

Humor aside, Nigerian criminals have definitely raised the stakes by flooding the streets with military assault rifles. Armored vehicles for the Nigerian market will need to be rated to withstand tornadoes of full-auto "stitching" by gunmen firing the industry standard Kalashnikov rifle that spews out 7.62x39mm steel-jacket rounds with a muzzle-velocity of over 3000 feet per second.

Anyone in the public eye that hopes to survive travel in Nigeria would be foolhardy NOT to invest in an armored car. A used one can run as low as 30 to 50 thousand US dollars, which is peanuts to Nigeria's men and women of " Timber and Calipers", when compared with the alternative of getting ambushed and jellyfished in ones unprotected car along Nigeria's mean streets and highways

I agree with you.

It is a good thing they are using AK47. It still shows they are backward. AK47 is used mainly for it simplicity and durability in tough conditions. However, the recoil rate sucks and reliability can be questionable at times. It is a favoured weapon in the shoddy under world, but there are better weapons - M16 and a few others. Let's just hope these criminals do not go beyond using rudimentary RPG, "technicals" and AKs

A major manufacturer have moved production to Brazil full time and if I remember correctly, one can by an APVs [Amour protected vehicles] from 20k depending on level of protection.

Please let me hear word.  Why invest billions in the purchase of armored vehicles why not divert the money in addressing the underlying causes of insecurity.  As it is Nigeria where nothing works i am not surprised.  It is very sad to anticipate future elections violence. We are surely reaping what we sowed.

blacksta:

Please let me hear word.  Why invest billions in the purchase of armored vehicles why not divert the money in addressing the underlying causes of insecurity.  As it is Nigeria where nothing works i am not surprised.  It is very sad to anticipate future elections violence. We are surely reaping what we sowed.

Remove the plugs from you ears and surely you go hear word.

You have to look at the bigger picture. We have different phases in the development of a nation. The first 20 years of independent should have been a time we invested a lot in Nigeria and have the structures running. By the third decade of independence [i.e 30th years] we should have start to see the economic benefit trickle through to the people. This appears to be a model used by nations that had independence as the same time as us - Malaysia and Ghana. Both are doing better than us and their in MANY WAYS.

Now going back to the point I'm trying to make. Nigeria have missed her chances and land marks to where this implementations should have taken place as a result, we are now in a phase where it is more a less like "survivor of the fittest" and every man is to himself and no one. Hence why there are sharp rise in violent crime -just look at the delta region.

Even if all these monies are "invested" it will not make any difference now because we have passed that "point of no return". It will require more and more spending which the result will most likely not be visible in the short run, and probably not in the long run.

They have to hide in armoured vehicles because those whose money they stole are on revenge mission. If they want to be safe, they better use the money for the good of the people else, those armoured vehicles will only be expensive coffins to die in. The people have been pushed to the wall and are bouncing back. There is going to be no hiding place when the bubble finally bursts. Let the looters take note.

ElRazur:

I agree with you.

It is a good thing they are using AK47. It still shows they are backward. AK47 is used mainly for it simplicity and durability in tough conditions. However, the recoil rate sucks and reliability can be questionable at times. It is a favoured weapon in the shoddy under world, but there are better weapons - M16 and a few others. Let's just hope these criminals do not go beyond using rudimentary RPG, "technicals" and AKs

A major manufacturer have moved production to Brazil full time and if I remember correctly, one can by an APVs [Amour protected vehicles] from 20k depending on level of protection.

In the cluttered urban environment that characterizes the majority of Nigeria's inhabited ares, most fire-fights will erupt with distances of 50 yards or less separating the combatants.   In such confined, close-quarters exchanges of frenzied fire, an AK47, fitted with 2 or 3 piggy-backed 30-round ammo magazines, is without doubt an utterly devastating street-sweeper, even in the hands of a poor marksman.  The surgical precision of the FNC, G3 and M16/M4/AR15 families of assault rifles only becomes tactically advantageous at ranges where telescopic sights are needed - between 50 and 150 yards, which would be a comparatively rare engagement distance in the non-desert terrain of southern Nigeria.   

The RPG7 grenade launcher, in the hands of a proficient grenadier, is one of the most feared and respected light weapons of infantry combat, and was used repeatedly to down multi-million dollar US Blackhawk helicopters in Somalia back in the 1990s.   Your dismissive reference to this weapon as being rudimentary in no way diminishes the deadly efficiency of the " VC yam pestle", as any RPG attack survivor would confirm.

I see what you mean and your reasons for saying so. A klashnikov will ideally be an over kill - using your logic of close quarters combats- I guess a hand gun will do? Or better still something compact like an Uzi or even better still a Micro Uzi?

Imagine the M16 in the hands of a Militant in the Niger-Delta region. The government soldier will be at a disadvantage if they have to cross path - taken accounts availability of night scope and all that.

As for the Black Hawk incident. They [US army] made a bad tactical decision by flying those million dollars weaponry at low altitude, not deploying flares, under estimating the capability of the enemy etc. Didn't the Russian suffered a similar faith during the invasion of Afghanistan as well? Anyway, I am not dismissing the deadliness of the weapon as such, but I personally feel the weapons are a bit dated. I'm sure if you have your army, you will want better weapons.

I think we may be derailing this thread lol.

There is no hiding place for this thieving politicians for the fact that we have more frustrated ex-servicemen with unpaid pensions waiting for the slightest opportunity to use their expertise once more (I am not talking about coup). It's like the politicians are not aware of the gathering cloud which will soon turn to rainstorm. Hmmmn.

I indeed have good news for all those who have plans or interest in purchasing this type of vehicles.

We are a Manufacturers Representative/Partner based in Nigeria and will make available these vehicles within a defined delivery period for far less than the amount described in the very first post of this topic.

For more information and purchase enquiries see https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-224785.0.html

or contact

Gabriel Morka
Head, Sales (Nigeria)
Armour Project Vehicles (Nigeria)
email: gabrielmorka@msn.com
tel: 08037473811 / 01 8538680

^^^^^

the hustlers are on their job 24/7

@ElRazur
Nice to see a fellow weapons enthusiast here on NL.
Did you just say the M16 is more reliable than the AK47? I disagree! The AK is by far more durable and reliable than M16s, as the US army found out to their chagrin in Vietnam. AKs buried underground for years have been found to work nicely after exhumation.

texazzpete:

@ElRazur
Nice to see a fellow weapons enthusiast here on NL.
Did you just say the M16 is more reliable than the AK47? I disagree! The AK is by far more durable and reliable than M16s, as the US army found out to their chagrin in Vietnam. AKs buried underground for years have been found to work nicely after exhumation.

Hi to you too.

I think you will find that m16 have had massive improvements and tweaking over the years. The M16 used in the Vietnam war is not the same available at the moment as there have been various variants [improved version]. On comparison, the AK have stayed the same due to it simple design and what not.

Not all leaders are thieves. Most are, but not all.

It is usually the honest ones that end up getting killed. It's the honest ones that need the most protection.