The kidnap, which took place on July 5, 1984, happened as Dikko walked out of his flat in Bayswater, London. He was immediately grabbed by two men and bundled into the back of a van.
“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 in 1985.
The movie-like plan was to kidnap him, drug him, pack him into a crate and fly him to Nigeria alive. It was alleged that former Mossad agent, Alexander Barak, led the kidnap team, made up of a Nigerian intelligence officer, and Israeli nationals ─ one of whom was to inject Dikko with an anaesthetic.
The kidnappers changed vehicles in a car park and made for Stansted airport, London. A Nigerian Airways flight was waiting. Dikko was by now unconscious, apparently from the injection. The anaesthetist was also in the crate with medical equipment to keep Dikko alive. They were on their way to the cargo terminal of Stansted Airport.
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Meanwhile, a Nigerian diplomat was at the airport, waiting for the crates.
Two years ago, the young British customs officer, Charles David Morrow, who foiled the plot, narrated his experience to the BBC World Service Witness programme.
Morrow said: “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.
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“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.”
“Diplomatic bag” was strange to them at Stansted, so Morrow decided to check the procedure.
But, wait─
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6 comments
Quite exciting political era. The truth is now here. 1 billion pound couldn’t have been stolen by an individual far back 1983! I stand to be corrected. I still believe Dikko died poor. I once met him and I never saw him as a man that once stole money. May his gentle soul and that of other great casts of the second republic that are now late rest in peace.
Can you imaging. And thirty years later they want us to vote the sadist dictator?
@Ade if he was innocent why did he run away? Please note there is a different between embezzlement and stealing. Stealing means taking it all, while embezzlement implies the use of personal discretion rather than original set out purpose for which a fund is designated. So even it was 20000 pounds he took out of it, he should have answered for it. Your judgement based on what you saw does not exonerate him.
In all this, you can discern purpose, there was a government, alas there was a country!
Chie there’s God ooo, may his soul rest in perfect peace Amen
And to know that just yesterday,Mr Goodluck Jonathan sent condolence messages to the family of Alhaji Dikko-which is not my problem-but stated he was a great Nigerian leader,who fought for the unity and progress of this country…reading this piece-which is not new to me and other accounts of the activities of Alhaji Dikko leaves me confused who President Jonathan was referring to or who actually died.What constitutes being a national hero deserving of one who supported the unity and growth of the country???Stealing billions from poor people????Ridiculous.