Mossad boss Nahum Admoni felt that London
was the most likely hideaway for Dikko. London was a favourite haunt of
Nigerian fugitives from justice. They were typically Anglophile and had
residences in the most affluent areas of London. Some Mossad agents set
up base in London along with Nigerian Major (retired) Mohammed Ahmadu
Jarfa Yusufu. Yusufu was a 40 year old former army officer. After the
military coup that overthrew Shagari he was transferred to the Nigerian
Ministry of External Affairs and posted to Nigeria’s High Commission in
the UK on May 1984. Although Yusufu entered the UK on a diplomatic
passport, the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office was not notified that
he was a member of the Nigerian diplomatic mission. Clearly, he had been
planted for the specific purpose of taking part in the Dikko operation.
Two separate groups of undercover agents
worked underground among London’s Nigerian community. The search was
narrowed to west London where many Nigerian officials had opulent
residences purchased with embezzled Nigerian state funds. The Dikko trail
seemed to be running cold until a chance encounter during the summer of
1984. On June 30, 1984 a Mossad agent spotted a man fitting Dikko’s
description in London’s wealthy Bayswater neighbourhood. The agent
surreptitiously followed Dikko on foot to a house at number 49 Porchester
Terrace. For several days the house was continuously watched by the
agents, and Dikko’s routine and movements were noted.
Logistics
The plans for Dikko’s capture were assembled
by a small team. It involved making arrangements to capture,
anaesthetise, and then transport Dikko out of the UK to Nigeria to face
trial. Dr Levi-Arie Shapiro was a 43 year old Israeli national, a
consultant and director of the intensive care unit at Hasharon hospital in
Tel Aviv. “Lou” Shapiro was also a reserve Major in the Israeli army.
Shapiro was recruited into the plot by a 27 year old Mossad field officer
named Alexander Barak who gave him money to purchase anaesthetics which
would be used to stupefy Dikko. Barak was from the Israeli coastal town
of Netanya and came from a family of diamond dealers. Another Mossad
field officer named Felix Abithol (31 years old) arrived in London on July
2, 1984 and checked into the Russell Square hotel. Meanwhile Major Yusufu
hired a van which would be used to convey Dikko once he had been
captured. Strangely, Yusufu’s men opted to hire a bright conspicuous
canary yellow van.
On July 4, 1984 a Nigerian Airways Boeing
707 cargo plane flew in with no cargo from Lagos and landed at Stansted
airport. The UK authorities were informed that the plane had come in to
collect diplomatic baggage from the Nigerian High Commission in London.
Several Nigerian security officers were onboard the plane and had orders
not to leave the airport.
The next day Major Yusufu drove the van he
had rented from Notting Hill Gate in west London and parked outside
Dikko’s house on Porchester Terrace. With Yusufu in the van were Dr
Shapiro, Barak and Abithol. Meanwhile, back at Stansted airport the
Captain of the Nigerian Airways plan that landed the day before filed a
departure time of 3pm and claimed that on its way back to Nigeria, the
plane would be carrying “documentation” for the Nigerian Ministry of
External Affairs. Diplomatic immunity was claimed for the
“documentation”.
Porchester Terrace - Midday
Just before lunchtime Dikko emerged from the
house in Porchester Terrace for a midday interview with a Ghanaian
journalist named Elizabeth Akua Ohene. Ohene was then the editor of
Talking Drum magazine but later became a Minister of State in Ghana’s
Ministry of Education. As Dikko walked, two men burst out from the yellow
van parked outside his house, grabbed him and forced him into the back of
the van. Within seconds the van doors had closed and the van sped away at
break-neck speed. Quick, surgical and precise, it was a typical Mossad
operation. Inside the van Dikko was dumped on his back and handcuffed.
After traversing through London’s busy streets the van eventually came to
a halt. Dikko was initially relieved and thought his kidnappers had been
stopped by the police. He was wrong. They had simply stopped to refuel.
Dikko was told to keep quiet as his captors refuelled. At a predetermined
rendezvous point near Regent’s Park, Dikko was transferred to a waiting
lorry. Dr Shapiro went to work and injected Dikko in the arm and buttock
with a powerful anaesthetic. Dikko lost consciousness.
However there was a hitch. Through a window
Dikko’s secretary Elizabeth Hayes witnessed Dikko being bundled into the
van. The astonished secretary managed to compose herself enough to
quickly dial 999 (the UK’s emergency services number) and alerted the
authorities of the incredible incident she just witnessed. Given Dikko’s
profile as a former Nigerian government minister, the call was quickly
escalated and within minutes police had arrived at the scene, closely
followed by officers from Scotland Yard’s anti-terrorist squad. The
Foreign Office and the Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher were also
alerted. All customs officials at airports, ports and border crossings
were told to be extra vigilant with regard to Nigeria bound vessels.
There was a second hitch. When subsequently
interviewed by Israel’s biggest selling newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth,
Alexander Barak said "In retrospect, I found out that the main culprit
had been Group Captain Banfa, formerly head of the Nigerian air force and
now CEO of Air Nigeria. This guy was supposed, according to the plan, to
meet at 9:00 A.M. with Yusufu and Dr. Shapiro at the apartment in London
and give them the right documents and join us, to supervise the loading of
the diplomatic crates at Stanstead Airport. But at the last minute Banfa
got cold feet." The absence of the correct diplomatic documents would
come back to haunt the kidnappers.
Back to Stansted Airport
By mid-afternoon on July 5, 1984 Dikko had
been anaesthetised into unconsciousness by Dr Shapiro, locked into a crate
and taken to Stansted airport. However at Stansted there was no visible
sign of Dikko, Shapiro, Abithol or Barak. Instead a lorry ferried two
crates to the airport. The lorry was escorted by two black Mercedes Benz
cars bearing Nigerian diplomatic licence plates. Shortly before 3pm two
crates labelled "diplomatic baggage" and addressed to the Nigerian
Ministry of External Affairs in Lagos were being loaded onto the Nigerian
Airways plane. The crates were 1.2 meters in height, 1.2 meters in depth
and 1.5 meters in width. They were accompanied by Major Yusufu and a
member of the Nigerian High Commission in London named Okon Edet. Having
been warned by the security forces to be wary, customs officers were
unusually inquisitive and vigilant.
A customs officer named Charles Morrow
noticed an unusual medical smell (probably the powerful medical
anaesthetic sodium pentathol) and a noise emanating from one of the
crates. Although the 707 was minutes away from take off, this gave Morrow
an excuse to use red tape to get a closer look at the crates. On the
pretext that the crates did not have the correct official seal, Morrow
insisted on having a closer look at them. Major Yusufu protested
furiously that the crates were protected by diplomatic immunity and could
not be searched. His vehement protests were dismissed and the customs
officers opened the crates with a crowbar.
What they found inside was shocking. In the
first case was a bound and unconscious Dikko with his torso bare. Dikko’s
captors had shoved an endo-tracheal tube in his throat to prevent him from
choking on his own vomit when he was out cold, but he was still alive.
They wanted him brought to Nigeria alive rather than dead. Beside him was
Dr Shapiro brandishing syringes and a supply of additional anaesthetics
with which to administer replenishments to Dikko. Dr Shapiro asked the
customs officers “Well gentlemen, what do we do now?”. Abithol and
Barak were found in the second crate. Dikko was rushed to Hertfordshire
and Essex Hospital in Bishops Stortford. He regained consciousness at
midday the following day having been unconscious for 36 hours. He awoke
totally oblivious to the ensuing drama and his dramatic rescue, and
received treatment at the hospital under heavy police guard. Barak later
blamed Nigerian air force officer Bernard Banfa for the plan’s failure.
Official Reaction
Britain was angry at the kidnap attempt on
its soil. Nigeria’s sending of security agents to commit a crime within
the borders of a friendly country was a hostile act of the highest
magnitude. The Nigerian government played a straight bat and denied any
involvement in the affair. Nigeria’s High Commissioner in London,
Major-General Haladu Anthony Hannaniya claimed the incident was the work
of ''some patriotic friends of Nigeria''. Hannaniya was formerly
Nigeria’s military attaché at the Nigerian High Commission in London, but
was promoted to High Commissioner when the military returned to power.
A Diplomatic Standoff
It was the turn of the British security
forces to go to work. The Nigerian Airways 707 was detained by the police
and was not permitted to take off. 17 people were also arrested on
suspicion of complicity in Dikko’s kidnap. The 17 suspects included the
707 crew, Abithol, Barak and Yusufu. Nigeria retaliated swiftly.
Forty-five minutes after a British Caledonian Boeing 747 flight took off
from Lagos it was ordered back ''for security reasons''. The plane's 222
passengers were allowed to disembark and leave the airport, but the plane
was held. This led to a days long standoff between Britain and Nigeria
until Britain released the Nigerian 707 plane, and Nigeria eventually
released the British Caledonian plane. However the damage had already
been done and diplomatic relations between the two countries became badly
strained. It was the worst diplomatic crisis between them since Nigeria
expelled the British High Commissioner in Nigeria Sir Martin Le Quesne in
the aftermath of the February 1976 coup, and Britain’s refusal to
extradite General Gowon to Nigeria in connection with it.
Originally, the Dikko kidnap attempt was
suspected to be the work of mercenaries. Foreign intelligence involvement
became apparent only when the sophistication and daring of the plan was
revealed. The role of Mossad, the Nigerian government and the NSO was
never admitted by either of the Nigerian and Israeli governments. With
the presence of Nigerian diplomatic passports and cars, the British police
expanded the scope of their investigation and asked Nigeria to waive
diplomatic immunity for its High Commission staff so they could be
interrogated. Two members of Nigeria’s High Commission staff Peter
Oyedele and Okon Edet were also arrested, and there was talk of calling in
High Commissioner Hannaniya for questioning. Outraged at the treatment of
its officials, the Nigerian government recalled Hannaniya to Lagos for
consultations. The British government was pleased with the development,
and as far as it was concerned, Hannaniya could stay there. It announced
that Hannaniya would not be welcome back. The British Foreign Secretary
Geoffrey Howe went a step further and ordered the expulsion of Oyedele and
Edet (the two Nigerian High Commission staff that were arrested as part of
the investigation).
Trial and Punishment
Of the original 17 suspects, 4 were tried (Barak,
Shapiro, Abithol and Yusufu). The legendary defence barrister George
Carman QC represented the defendants. Sticking to the traditional Mossad
response of denying involvement, the defendants argued that they were
mercenaries acting on behalf of Nigerian businessmen. The judge did not
believe them and was convinced that Mossad was involved. The judge told
the jury that “The finger of involvement almost certainly points to
Mossad”. Even Carman’s famed legal skills could not prevent the
defendants’ conviction. The convicts were sentenced to the following
prison sentences:
-
Alexander Barak - 14 years
-
Mohammed Yusufu – 12 years
-
Levi-Arie Shapiro - 10 years
-
Felix Abithol – 10 years
Postscript
All the other convicts have
subsequently been freed. Barak was freed after serving 8 and half years
of his 14 year sentence. Yusufu was freed in 1991 after serving 7 years
of his 12 year sentence. Abithol and Shapiro were freed after serving 6
years of their 10 year sentence. Abithol, Barak and Shapiro were quietly
deported to Israel after their release. The dramatis personae have
since refused to comment on the matter. Barak later told the Israeli
magazine Haaretz that "All those involved
in this old story have embarked on new lives or have returned to their
Maker, and I do not see any point in recycling the affair."
The fall out from the crisis led to a two
year suspension of diplomatic relations between Nigeria and Britain. The
controversy also weakened Nigeria’s war on corruption by hardening British
attitudes, and creating a pretext for Britain to refuse cooperation in
Nigerian attempts to extradite and prosecute corrupt officials. After
the kidnap, Nigeria submitted a formal request to Britain for Dikko’s
extradition. The request was refused and Britain also refused to
extradite other Nigerian fugitive politicians in the UK who Nigeria sought
to prosecute for massive corruption (such as Richard Akinjide and Adisa
Akinloye). It also complicated Nigeria’s economic relations at a time of
falling oil prices and worsening economic conditions. The British
government led by Margaret Thatcher responded to Nigerian government
requests for debt rescheduling by threatening to publish the names of
prominent Nigerians with bank accounts in the UK whose account balances
were sufficient to pay off Nigeria’s national debt. This would probably
have compromised the legitimacy of past and present highly placed
officials. Full diplomatic relations between the countries were not
restored until February 1986 when the government of Major-General Ibrahim
Babangida came to power.
After recovering, Dikko remained in London
for another 12 years. He was confined at home under police guard for a
year. In exile he fulfilled a childhood ambition by qualifying as a
barrister. Dikko was eventually invited back to Nigeria in 1995 by the
military regime of General Sani Abacha (who was a member of the government
which tried to kidnap and forcefully repatriate him in 1984). On his
return he formed a political party called the United Democratic Party (UDP).
Cynical Nigerians dubbed the party the “Umaru Dikko Party”. Dikko
remained bitter and in 2001 took his claim to the Justice Chukwudifu Oputa
chaired Human Rights Violations Investigations Commission. Dikko accused
the following of complicity in his abduction: air force officer Bernard
Banfa (ex Nigeria Airways), Alhaji Lawal Rafindadi (former
Director-General of Nigeria’s National Security Organization), Nigeria’s
former High Commissioner in London Major-General Haladu Anthony Hannaniya
and Lt-General T.Y. Danjuma. All the accused except Danjuma refused to
appear before the Commission. Danjuma denied involvement in Dikko’s
kidnap and he and Dikko reconciled during the Commission’s proceedings.
Dikko is still alive. He was a founding member of the Arewa Consultative
Forum and remains a prominent spokesman and non-governmental political
figure.
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