A middle age man simply identified as Henry, who reportedly made away with a Mercedes Benz GLB 250 in Abuja while test driving it under the pretence of wanting to purchase same, has denied stealing the vehicle.
A car dealer named Manga, said Henry, who claimed to reside in Gwarinpa, vanished with the said car.
Narrating the incident, Manga said a friend who also trades in cars, took the car worth over N55m to Henry who had shown interest in purchasing the same.
Manga said the vehicle is grey with a mileage of 19000. He said after taking the vehicle to the customer, Henry requested a test drive and was duly accompanied by his friend.
A few minutes into the test drive, the friend excused himself to withdraw money from a point of sale (PoS) operator. Henry seized the opportunity and disappeared with the car.
“They negotiated N55m for the car and he said okay and demanded test-driving the car,” he said. 
“He drove the car with my friend sitting on the passenger side of the vehicle and they drove out to the filling station opposite the automatic car wash in Garki to buy petrol before the test-drive.
“Immediately my friend stepped out of the car at the filling station to withdraw money from the PoS operator to buy fuel, the guy zoomed off with the vehicle.
“You know how it is, there’s no traffic, no hold-up in Abuja and that’s how he absconded with the car.”
Speaking on the incident, Josephine Ameh, spokesperson of Abuja police command, said officers are tracking the suspect.
“The incident has been reported to us and we have started tracking the suspect but as of now, we do not have any further update,”
“It is a huge loss to the vehicle owner and we are committed to getting to the root of the incident.”
Henry was later traced to Delta State where the porch car was recovered. Curiously, he has now denied stealing the SUV.
He said: “I’m from Ughelli in Delta State, but I live in Abuja. I’m into foreign exchange and bureau de change business. I have been doing this for seven years. I started along that line when I was in secondary school. My business is at Istanbul Airport, Turkey, so I used to shuttle between there and Nigeria. I started it there in 2021. I returned from Istanbul in May after the general elections”
On how he got into police custody, he said: “I was arrested on 6th July for car theft after I was tracked by the police. Actually, I moved the car from Abuja to Delta State.
“I didn’t steal the car, but it was not mine. What happened was that I got the owner’s contact from an online platform (name withheld). He posted the car’s picture on the platform, putting it up for sale. When I called him to indicate an interest, he told me to come for the car inspection. He was also Abuja-based and the location he invited me to was at Garki.
“I saw the car, and the intending seller put the price at N58 million. I offered to pay N30 million and he said I should test-drive it so that I would know the value of what I was pricing. He gave me the car key and sat on the passenger seat
“When we got to a filling station, he asked me to pull over as he needed to buy fuel for the car. He told me to wait so that he would go and get some cash to buy the fuel. I waited for his return for three hours but he was nowhere to be found, and I was already causing a queue at the filling station. I called his line several times but it was switched off. It was already dusk so I drove to my residence at almost 8 pm. My phone had gone flat then, so I charged it when I got home and called him again. His line was switched off.
“The following day, I drove down to Delta for business. That same day, I saw my picture that he posted on the internet, calling me a car thief. His call also came in and he told me he had informed the police and they were tracking the car. This made me mad at him. It was crazy. I switched off my line known to him and started using my other line.
“My uncle saw me with the car and he asked me about it. I told him how the car came by and he got mad and slapped me. He said he would not allow me to drive the car but would report it at a police station
“I ran from him because he assaulted me. I was eventually arrested in Benin, Edo State. I didn’t steal the car, I only drove it from Abuja to Delta. If I were the car dealer, I would just look for a way to get the car back. That would work,” he added.
Eighteen-Eleven Media