August 25, (THEWILL) – A year and six months after the passing of late Olanrewaju Rasak Shittu, one of Nigeria’s top auto dealers and socialite, his auto business which he left behind has continued to blossom, much to the surprise of many who thought that with his passing, the business, Lanre Shittu Motors, would close shop. Fortunately, this has not been the case.
The deceased’s sons, Taiwo and Lukman, who are the managing director and deputy managing director of the company, respectively, have taken it upon themselves to make sure that their father’s legacy outlives him.
The local vehicle assembler has jumped on the opportunity to assemble buses that run on 100 per cent Compressed Natural Gas-powered vehicles, CNG at its Lagos assembly plant. This the company says is to support President Bola Tinubu’s CNG initiative of easing public transportation and cushioning the effects of fuel subsidy removal.
The company is also willing to support those buying a large fleet, including state governments, with the installation of mobile CNG stations across different locations. Also, 100 units of the buses coming in two specifications would be introduced gradually. The first set of the 31-seater buses would be deployed for an intra-airport shuttle, while the second set, a 54-seater also accommodating 25 persons, would serve as a mass transit city bus.
The city bus built with seven cylinders can travel for 450-500 kilometres without the need to refill while the airport bus, also built with seven CNG cylinders, has a lot of space for boxes and two wheelchairs, like the city bus. They will all have charging stations. While on the move, one can charge mobile devices. The bus will be air-conditioned, durable and installed with viewing screens.
The patriarch of the Shittu family died in February 2023. He was aged 65. Before his death, he was and is still the number one dealer of Mack trucks in Africa, holding the sole franchise for Mack brand vehicles in Nigeria and also the only dealer of Sany heavy duty equipment and Yutong buses in Nigeria. His company is also a licensed dealer of KIA, NISSAN, Jinbei Buses, and was the leading supplier of genuine spare parts to automobile dealers in Nigeria and others. In his lifetime, Shittu was not without controversy. In November 2000, he was abducted by operatives from the United States Drug Enforcement Agency in conjunction with their Nigerian counterpart, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) and arraigned in a US court.
Apparently, there was a pending civil suit at the Federal High Court, Abuja over a move by former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration to have him extradited to America to answer to the alleged money laundering charge. Although his extradition was a clear violation of the extradition treaty between Nigeria and the United States, there were speculations alleging that the federal government was aware of the ‘kidnap.’ He was eventually freed, following realisation that the District Court of New York lacked the jurisdiction to entertain the matter because both countries had violated the treaty on extradition, which they agreed to be binding on them.
