February 27, (THEWILL) – Popular Nigerian auto dealer and Socialite, Olanrewaju Rasak Shittu, is dead.
Shittu passed away on Monday morning, at the age of 65.
His death is happening a year after his wife threw him a lavish surprise 64th birthday party.
Shittu was a successful entrepreneur and 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.
The successful businessman was also a licensed dealer of KIA, NISSAN and 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.
Following his abduction, his wife and children were forced to flee their then-Surulere, Lagos residence.
Apparently, there was a pending civil suit at the Federal High Court, Abuja, over a move by the Federal Government, led by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, 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 government of the day was aware of the ‘kidnap.’
Lanre was eventually freed, following the 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.
