By Desire Emmanuel
Two vehicles that were said to have been stolen from The Netherlands and shipped to Nigeria have been recovered from Lagos and Akwa Ibom states.
The Nigeria Police Force announced the recovery in a statement by the Force Public Relations Officer, Benjamin Hundeyin, and posted on its Facebook page on Monday, October 20.
According to the statement, operatives of the INTERPOL National Central Bureau (NCB), Abuja, in a coordinated operation with INTERPOL, The Hague, traced and recovered the vehicles, a Toyota C-HR (2020 model) and a Toyota RAV4 (2019 model), in Lagos and Akwa Ibom States.
The statement added that investigations revealed that the vehicles were stolen from Amsterdam and Midden-Nederland and subsequently shipped to Nigeria through the Port of Antwerp, Belgium, arriving Apapa, Lagos, in late 2023.
“Following the recovery, the Nigeria Police Force, through INTERPOL NCB Abuja, instituted civil forfeiture proceedings at the Federal High Court, Abuja. Upon the conclusion of due legal processes, the court granted a final forfeiture order in favour of the government of the Netherlands through the vehicles’ insurance company, thereby facilitating their lawful repatriation.
“In furtherance of this process, the Nigeria Police Force INTERPOL team today, 20th October 2025, formally handed over the recovered vehicles to representatives of the insurance company and the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Nigeria, marking the successful conclusion of the cross-border recovery and restitution effort.”
It could however not be confirmed what happened to those behind the theft of the vehicles and those who shipped them into the country since 2023.
