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| Alhaji Umaru Dikko one time Nigeria's most wanted man kidnapped in London. |
- How Umaru Dikko was kidnapped in a London street
- How he was saved by a vigilant customs official
- How the Umaru Dikko affair almost broke down Nigeria Uk relations.
On 31 December, 1983, the elected government of Nigeria was overthrown in a military coup by the country's army. The new military government jailed several government ministers for corruption and embezzlement while in office. However, the powerful former Transport Minister, Umaru Dikko, fled to London. The military claimed that Dikko used his position as Transport Minister to enrich himself in a series of racketeering scandals. It regarded Umaru Dikko as its most wanted fugitive from justice and wanted to bring him back to Nigeria to face trial.
Labelled "Nigeria's most wanted man", a plot was hatched to get both Dikko & the money back.
The extraordinary plan was to kidnap Mr Dikko, drug him, stick him into a specially made crate and put him on a plane back to Nigeria - alive.
To bring this about, they hatched a plot to kidnap Dikko off the streets of London. Nigerian intelligence services and undercover agents (with the help of several Israelis who were alleged to be members of Israel's intelligence agency, Mossad) tracked Dikko to a house in west London. After placing the house under surveillance, the agents decided to strike on 5 July, 1984.
Moments after Dikko emerged from the house, two men burst out from a van parked outside the house. They grabbed Dikko and bundled him into the back of the van. The team inside
the van included a doctor who injected Dikko to render him unconscious. |
| General Buhari,his government labelled Umaru Dikko Nigeria's most wanted and corrupt man. |
The kidnappers switched vehicles in a car park by London Zoo and headed towards Stansted airport where a Nigerian Airways plane was waiting. They injected Mr Dikko and laid him, unconscious, in a crate.
The Israeli anaesthetist climbed into the crate as well, carrying medical equipment to make sure Mr Dikko didn't die en route. Barak and Abitbol got into a second crate. Both boxes were then sealed.
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| The missing person's bulletin that allerted custom's to the Umaru Dikko kidnapp |
At the cargo terminal of Stansted Airport, 40 miles (64km) north of London, a Nigerian diplomat was anxiously waiting for the crates to arrive. Also on duty that day was a young customs officer, Charles David Morrow.
Dikko's kidnappers locked him in a large crate labelled "diplomatic baggage" and addressed to the Nigerian Ministry of External Affairs in the then capital city, Lagos. They claimed diplomatic immunity for the crate's contents, and drove him to Stansted airport to place him on a waiting Nigerian cargo plane.
"I remember the very violent way in which I was grabbed and hurled into a van, with a huge fellow sitting on my head - and the way in which they immediately put on me handcuffs and chains on my legs," Dikko told the BBC a year later.
Unbeknown to the kidnappers, Dikko's secretary had glanced out of her window just in time to see her boss being bundled into the van outside his house, and she dialled 999.
The kidnap was initially thought to be the work of criminals and was referred to Scotland Yard's anti-terrorist squad. The Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was also informed.
The British government ordered customs officials at airports, ports and border crossings to be vigilant when inspecting Nigeria-bound vessels.
One customs officer at Stansted airport was especially vigilant.
"The day had gone fairly normally until about 3pm. Then we had the handling agents come through and say that there was a cargo due to go on a Nigerian Airways 707, but the people delivering it didn't want it manifested," Mr Morrow said.
"I went downstairs to see who they were and what was happening. I met a guy who turned out to be a Nigerian diplomat called Mr Edet. He showed me his passport and he said it was diplomatic cargo. Being ignorant of such matters, I asked him what it was, and he told me it was just documents and things."
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| The Nigeria Airways Boeing 707 plane waiting to take Umaru Dikko to Nigeria at Stansted Airport. |
Just then a colleague returned from the passenger terminal with some startling news. There was an All Ports Bulletin from Scotland Yard saying that a Nigerian had been kidnapped and it was suspected he would be smuggled out of the country.No-one on duty at Stansted had dealt with a diplomatic bag before and Mr Morrow went to check the procedure.
Hearing the news, Mr Morrow realised he had a problem on his hands.
"I just put two and two together. The classic customs approach is not to look for the goods, you look for the space," he said.
"So I am looking out of the window and I can see the space which is these two crates, clearly big enough to get a man inside. We've got a Nigerian Airways 707, which we don't normally see. They don't want the crates manifested, so there would be no record of them having gone through. And there was very little other cargo going on board the aircraft.
"If you want to hide a tree, you hide it in the forest. You don't stick it out in the middle of Essex."
But any cargo designated as a diplomatic bag is protected by the Vienna Convention from being opened by customs officers. So Mr Morrow got on the phone to the British Foreign Office.
The decision was taken that the crates could be opened - but it would be done by the book. That required the presence of a Nigerian diplomat, but as Mr Morrow pointed out, one was already on hand. By now, the crates were up on special trolleys ready to be loaded on to the plane."To qualify as a 'diplomatic bag' they clearly had to be marked with the words 'Diplomatic Bag' and they had to be accompanied by an accredited courier with the appropriate documentation. It was fair to say they had a Nigerian diplomat - I'd seen his passport - but they didn't have the right paperwork and they weren't marked 'Diplomatic Bag'," he said.
"Peter, the cargo manager, hit the lid on the bottom and lifted it. And as he lifted it, the Nigerian diplomat, who was standing next to me, took off like a startled rabbit across the tarmac," Mr Morrow said.
"You have to remember we are on an airfield which is square miles of nothing. He ran about five yards (4.5m), realised no-one was chasing him and then stopped.
"Peter looked into the crate and said: 'There's bodies inside!'
Mr Morrow dialled the emergency number 999.
"My name's Morrow, from Customs at Stansted. We've got some bodies in a crate. Do you think you can send someone over," he recalls saying
"They said: 'Alive or Dead?'
"I said: 'That's a very good point. I don't know.'
"They said: 'We'll send an ambulance as well.'"
After half an hour, police started to arrive, and they opened the second crate. Inside they found an unconscious Mr Dikko, and a very much awake Israeli anaesthetist. Mr Dikko was lying on his back in the corner of the crate.
"He had no shirt on, he had a heart monitor on him, and he had a tube in his throat to keep his airway open. No shoes and socks and handcuffs around his ankles. The Israeli anaesthetist was in there, clearly to keep him alive," recalls Mr Morrow.
The kidnappers in the other crate were unrepentant. They said Mr Dikko was the biggest crook in the world.
The Nigerian intelligence officer and the three Israelis all received prison sentences in the UK.
Diplomatic relations between the UK and Nigeria broke down and were only fully restored two years later. The Nigerian and Israeli governments have always denied involvement in the Dikko kidnapping.
Mr Dikko returned to Nigeria the following decade and still lives there.
Mr Morrow was commended for actions that day by the head of UK Customs, who described the incident as a "very tricky situation".
The controversy also weakened Nigeria's war on corruption, as Britain rejected a subsequent formal request from Nigeria to extradite Dikko and other Nigerian politicians in the UK who were wanted in Nigeria on charges of corruption.
Four men were convicted of kidnapping Dikko (three Israelis and a Nigerian) in a trial at the Old Bailey, and were jailed. All were released and returned to their countries after serving their sentences. After regaining consciousness in hospital, Dikko remained in Britain for over a decade.
Mr Dikko later returned to Nigeria the following decade and still lives there.
All sounds like a scene from a James Bond Movie,but this was no fiction story,it actually happened.
contributions Alex Last&Max Siollun