Over the past few weeks I have been revisiting the controversial attempt to kidnap Umaru Dikko in 1984 (Read Part 1 and Part 2).  Dikko was one of the most powerful and notorious figures in the government of President Shagari between 1979 and 1983.  This is the concluding part of the series which recounts the circumstances, timing and details of the kidnap. 

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 haunts in the affluent areas of London.  Some Mossad agents set up base in London along with 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 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 anaesthetise, capture 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 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 anaesthetised.  Strangely Yusufu’s men opted to hire a bright conspicuous 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 security officers were onboard the plane and had orders not to leave the airport. 

July 5, 1984

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 midday lunchtime Dikko emerged from the house in Porchester Terrace for a midday interview meeting 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 had 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.  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 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.

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 the 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 to be wary by the security forces, customs officers were unusually inquisitive and vigilant. 

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.  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 a Nigerian air force officer for the plan’s failure.

Official Reaction

Britain was angry at the kidnap attempt on its soil.  Sending foreign security agents from a friendly country to commit a crime on its shores was a hostile act.  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.  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 diplomatic 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 highly placed officials past and present.  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 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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References

4 Held in London Deny Nigerian Role in Plot, Time Magazine, July 27, 1984

An Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Conflict and Conflict Resolution, 1945-1996, by John E. Jessup, Greenwood Publishing (1998).

Britain Convicts 4 of Kidnapping Nigerian, Time Magazine – February 13, 1985

British Custom Officials Open a Pandora's Crate, New York Times - July 8, 1984

Development: Critical Concepts in the Social Sciences by Stuart Corbridge.  Routledge (1999)

Diplomatic Baggage: Mossad & Nigeria, The Dikko Story, by Kayode Soyinka.  Newswatch Books Limited, Lagos (1994)

Life Is an Excellent Adventure: An Irreverent Personal Odyssey, by Jerry Funk

Nigerian Foreign Policy Under Military Rule, 1966-1999 By Olayiwola Abegunrin.  Greenwood Publishing (2003)

The Light That Failed, Time Magazine - Monday, Jan. 16, 1984