Nigerian police on Tuesday announced the
arrest of 11 members of a “daredevil” gang after the kidnapping of a senior
Sierra Leone diplomat to Abuja last month. The men are alleged to be part of a
“kidnapping gang” that on June 30 seized Alfred Nelson-Williams, Sierra Leone’s
defence attaché and deputy head of the country’s mission in Nigera.
He was released on July 5. Police said the
“daredevil criminal gang” also kidnapped an executive director of the Dangote
Group, one of the continent’s largest companies. The kidnappers mounted “road
blocks on highways in military uniforms” to capture victims, and relocated
“from one point to another in the forest with their victims to avoid detection
and arrest”, police said in a statement.
Nelson-Williams said on Monday he
was stopped at a checkpoint by men armed with AK-47 assault rifles and dressed
in military fatigues while travelling to Kaduna, 200 kilometres (125 miles)
north of Abuja. His abduction was the first of a Sierra Leone diplomat anywhere
in the world since the country gained independence in 1961, according to
foreign ministry sources in Freetown. Nigeria has long been plagued by
kidnappings for ransom where wealthy locals and expatriate workers have been
seized and usually returned after payment several days or weeks later. In the
past, kidnapping happened more frequently in the oil-producing south, but the
phenomenon has spread to the country’s north, with criminal gangs breaking into
the lucrative kidnapping trade.
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