Haldu Hananiya, a former Nigerian ambassador to the United Kingdom, has given some insider’s insights into the failed attempt by then Muhammadu Buhari-led military regime to abduct an exiled Nigerian Second Republic minister, Umaru Dikko, in London.
Mr Hananiya, a retired army general, now 80, shared his thoughts about the incident in his yet-to-be-released book, ‘All Eyes On Me,’ a copy of which was exclusively obtained by PREMIUM TIMES.
The book is a memoir, reflecting on the life and career of Mr Hananiya. It gives the author’s account of Nigeria’s Civil War, the Cement Armada Scandal, the Buhari-Idiagbon regime’s Decree 4, and the failed attempt to kidnap Mr Dikko in London, the United Kingdom.
The book comes about 38 years after the historic episode of the aborted abduction of Mr Dikko in 1984.
Mr Buhari, then head of state, whose regime denied involvement in the abduction which caused a tit-for-tat diplomatic row between Nigeria and the UK, is Nigeria’s incumbent president.
Mr Hananiya said the incident was nothing short of “a harrowing experience” for him as the then Nigerian High Commissioner in London.
He said he had to lie to British authorities about the “Dikko kidnapping affair” even though he was not involved in the planning.
“I was not put in the picture,” Mr Hananiya said, “But in all my interactions with the British authorities, I stood my ground that the federal government of Nigeria had nothing to do with the abduction of Dikko.
“I later learned that Lt General Yakubu Danjuma, then a retired officer and Aliyu Mohammed Gusau, an intelligence officer still in service, and a few others were involved in the planning.”
The former envoy said he was incensed by the whole incident and was under considerable pressure from the British authorities. “Despite my misgivings, Mr Hananiya said, “I had to defend my country.”
The former high commissioner added that, throughout the period, he was in touch with Lagos, then Nigeria’s capital, and could easily access Mr Buhari and his then second-in-command, Tunde Idiagbon, “but it had been decided that I was not to be informed.”
“When I expressed anger about not being taken into confidence on the issue, they claimed they didn’t want me to get involved because of the office I occupied.”
The Dikko abduction saga
An attempt to kidnap and repatriate the exiled former minister, Mr Dikko, was foiled by a vigilant British customs officer in London in 1984.
A controversial politician, Mr Dikko was Minister of Transportation in the Shehu Shagari administration from 1979 till December 31, 1983, when the government was toppled by the military, and Mr Buhari became the head of state.
Mr Dikko as well as some ministers in the Shagari administration fled to exile as the new military regime began to clamp down on the previous administration’s officials accused of embezzling public funds during their time in office.
Mr Dikko, who died aged 77 in London in 2014, always denied the corruption allegations levelled against him by the Buhari regime.
One of the most outspoken officials in the Shagari administration, Mr Dikko, who fled to London after the ouster of the Shagari regime, remained one of the main targets of the new military junta.ⓘ
The regime went after him, and in an off-the-book covert operation, the Nigerian security operatives supported by Israeli counterparts, seized him outside his house in London and bundled him into a transit van. He was driven to the Stansted airport, where he was to be flown as “diplomatic baggage” to Lagos to face charges of allegedly stealing $1 billion.
His captors handcuffed him, drugged him, and stuffed him, in chains, into a specially made crate with a doctor by his side maintaining a tube on his throat to keep him alive.
The plot flopped when Charles Marrow, the British Customs officer, suspected foul play, got the police to abort the trip. The Buhari junta denied any role in the failed mission, which resulted in a major diplomatic spat between Nigeria and Britain for two years.
The then British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, protested to the Federal Military Government of Nigeria over the kidnapping “which is seen as an inexcusable, if not inexplicable abuse of diplomatic status.”
‘Difficult situation’
Mr Hananiya, the former Nigerian High Commissioner in London, was at the centre of the storm during the abduction saga.
He quoted an Editorial by the Telegraph, a British broadsheet newspaper, captured the difficult situation he found himself in.Advertisements
Whether positive or negative, any response by the Nigerian High Commissioner to the question of waiving diplomatic immunity on the accused persons was bad for him.
“If he refused, everyone would assume that the Nigerian government was indeed involved in the plot to kidnap Dikko….and if he agreed and Nigerian diplomats were interviewed by the police and subsequently prosecuted and convicted, “the morals of Major General Buhari’s regime will not be at a premium,” the Telegraph had opined.
The diplomat, however, chose to “defend his country,” a decision that made him lose his job as a High Commissioner.
Frosty diplomatic relationship with the UK
When the abduction of Mr Dikko failed, the British police promptly detained Nigeria Airways aircraft and arrested four persons in connection to the issue. In retaliation, the Nigerian government also detained a commercial British Caledonian plane carrying 220 passengers in Lagos.
The four men – three Israeli nationals and one Nigerian national – were charged with kidnapping – a common-law offence and with administering drugs with intent to kidnap.ⓘ
When the trials were finally concluded, Alexander Barak, an Israeli described as the leader of the kidnap group, bagged 14 years jail term. Two of his compatriots, Lew Arie Shapiro and Felix Abitbol, received 10 years each, while Mohammed Yesufu, a Nigerian, was sentenced to 12 years.
The Nigerian and Israeli governments have always denied involvement in the kidnapping.
The British government also implicated two members of the Nigerian High Commission diplomatic staff members, Peter Oyedele, and Okon Edet, as having engaged in activities “incompatible with their status.” They requested Messrs Oyedele and Edet to leave the United Kingdom within one week.
Nigeria responded similarly by asking that two persons from the British High Commission also leave Nigeria within the same period. Nigeria further asked the British High Commissioner to Nigeria to return to London while Mr Hananiya was recalled and reassigned to another post.
The Book – ‘All Eyes On Me’
PREMIUM TIMES earlier reported a part of the book where Mr Hananiya explained why the then Buhari regime hurriedly promulgated the infamous Public Officers Protection Against False Accusation law, popularly known as ‘Decree 4’ in 1984.
It was under the stringent law that Nduka Irabor and Tunde Thompson – two reporters with The Guardian – “were tried and jailed for refusing to divulge the source of a story published by the newspaper.”
Mr Buhari had planned to appoint Mr Hananiya and seven other top military officers for posting as ambassadors. But, in their exclusive report, The Guardian reported the regime’s plan to replace Mr Hananiya’s name with that of another General, IBM Haruna.
Angered by this exclusive report, Mr Buhari applied the law under Decree Four to try and subsequently jail the two journalists.
In the book, ‘All Eyes on Me,’ Mr Hananiya has confirmed that “There was indeed an attempt to replace my name with Haruna’s (another army General) as the High Commissioner to the UK.”
He added that: “The Guardian story was indeed accurate and that the journalists were punished not for any professional infraction but rather for the embarrassment the information leakage caused the duo of Buhari and his then deputy, the late Major General Tunde Idiagbon.”
In another section of the book, Mr Hananiya wrote about the “critical role that military engineers played during the civil war when they led in opening new routes, dismantling mines, and constructing bridges so that the fighting troops could move without any hindrance.”
Overall, while ‘All Eyes On Me’ may be the story of one man, Olusegun Adeniyi, who wrote the foreword to the book, noted: “It is also, in several respects, the story of Nigeria and some of the choices that have led us to where we are today.”
Mr Adeniyi, a former spokesperson to the late President Umar Yar’adua and chairman of Thisday Newspaper’s editorial board, describes Mr Hananiya’s book as “highly revealing.”
Credit: Premium Times