The Umaru Dikko Affair

Briefly... Umaru Dikko, Transport and Aviation Minister of Nigeria under the Shehu Shagari regime, escaped to England in the aftermath of the military coup of 31st December 1983 led by Major General Buhari. From exile, his outspoken criticism of the military made him a lightning rod for the regime and he was declared wanted and a fugitive. Months later, he was kidnapped outside his home, off a London street, drugged unconscious and bundled into a diplomatic crate intended to be shipped back to Nigeria. Only prompt action by customs and police at Stansted airport foiled the kidnap attempt. Four men, three Israelis and a Nigerian diplomatic attaché were arrested, put on trial and convicted for the crime. The diplomatic fallout of the crime - the possible involvement of the Israeli and Nigerian security services and governments, would reverberate across the world.

Talking Drums covered the arc of the entire affair and was an integral part of the story. Indeed, an early interview and criticism aired in these pages might have been the impetus for the animus from the military. Tellingly, Alhaji Umaru Dikko was on his way to be interviewed by Talking Drums when he was kidnapped. Read on...

Coverage of the Umaru Dikko Affair

Prelude

• Before the Storm...

  Dikko as chairman of the President Shehu Shagari's re-election campaign committee

  October 24, 1983 issue

• The Flight 250 disaster

  Transport and Aviation Minister, Alhaji Umaru Dikko, has now said that F-28s would be phased out

  December 12, 1983 issue

Coup

• Wanted politicians

  Five former officials have been declared wanted by the Federal Military government...

  January 16, 1984 issue

• Details of detainees

  On Dr Umaru Dikko, the Chief of Staff Brigadier Tunde Idiagbon explained that he was never arrested during the coup, adding, a top journalist who helped him to escape was now under detention

  January 30, 1984 issue

Exile

• Umaru Dikko in a Crusade Against Military Regimes

  He was said to be the most powerful man in Nigeria these past four years. Now forced into exile by the December 31st, 1983 coup, an unrepentant Umaru Dikko tells Elizabeth Ohene of his battle plans in his war against military take-overs in Africa.

  On the run

  Now Umaru Dikko is on the run. Screaming through all nations of the earth. He has not got a resting place again. He has murdered sleep.

  February 6, 1984 issue

• Exposing the Military - An Opportunity Lost

  On the Nigerian front one feels sorry for President Shehu Shagari who according to Dr Umaru Dikko... decided in 1979 that the future was far more important than the past and therefore resisted all attempts to lay bare what he had inherited, including the wrongdoings of the military predecessors.

  Apply the Same Yardstick to Soldiers and Politicians

  General Buhari then challenged run away politicians to return home and substantiate their allegations of wrongdoing against certain members of the Supreme Military Council. He particularly guaranteed Alhaji Umaru Dikko, Isiyaku Ibrahim and others, safe passage and fair trial.

  February 20, 1984 issue

• Does Dikko know what Jihad means?
  
  Nigerian Students In UK Demonstrate

  February 27, 1984 issue

• Buhari Must Drink His Own Medicine

  it is sad that Gen. Buhari should be reduced to such desperation as to say that he will declare his assets publicly if Alhaji Umaru Dikko will come home and declare his own.

  March 5, 1984 issue

• Akinloye Pledges Support
  
  Where is Uba Ahmed?

  March 19, 1984 issue

• Dikko's surprise

  March 26, 1984 issue

• If the cap fits...

  ... bizarre stories that have been surfacing... Newspaper reports... quoted the Information Minister, Group Captain Emeka Omeruah as saying that the Federal Military Government had uncovered a new plot by exiled officials of the previous civilian government aimed at overthrowing the military government

  The guilty are afraid

  Back to the hidden crevice, he dreams of Umaru Dikko and Isyaku Ibrahim and his sleep is disturbed. It is morning and he announces to his lieutenants that the fugitives are planning to invade the country. There is panic. There is pandemonium. It is a vicious circle of fear, of self-guilt, of hallucinations and there can be no saviour....

  July 2, 1984 issue

Kidnapping

• The Umaru Dikko Kidnap Drama

  Alhaji Umaru Dikko the minister for Transport and Aviation in the deposed government of ex-President Shehu Shagari of Nigeria was kidnapped outside his home in London on Thursday 5 July, 1984.

  Comment - An Indefensible Act

  The saddest aspect of the government of the Supreme Military Council of Nigeria these past six months is the display of total lack of faith in the law.

  Four Remanded Over Dikko's Abduction

  Four men, three Israeli nationals and a Nigerian diplomat, have been remanded in custody until July 19 when they appeared before a Lambeth magistrates court in London, charged with offences relating to the abduction of Alhaji Umaru Dikko.

  The Making Of A Billionaire

  People are no longer saying that "Dikko is reputed to be a billionaire ." They are saying that Dikko is a billionaire.

  What Secrets Has Dikko Got?

  When abducted, he was on the way to an interview with Elizabeth Ohene

  How Nigeria Reacted to the Umaru Dikko Kidnap Drama

  The Nigerian Federal radio has taken a tough attitude in the matter launching a bitter attack against Britain for having 'overreacted' on the Dikko affair. It accused the British Prime Minister Mrs Margaret Thatcher of 'silent hostility' towards Nigeria and the Foreign Secretary Sir Geoffrey Howe of 'naked hypocrisy'.

  "They have goofed" - Isyaku

  "They have goofed... and to think that generals can sit down and plan such a diabolical scheme. One would have thought that as generals they would at least have sophistication!"

  Send Them Packing! - Daily Mirror, London
  
  Diplomatic Smash And Grab - The Times, London

  July 16, 1984 issue

• The Stansted debacle revisited

  Even now as the British Government ponder over what further action to take against the Nigerian Government, Britain's economic interest in Nigeria is the focus of attention.

  The Umaru Dikko Kidnap Affair: Nothing Succeeds Like Failure

  Take just a few instances of perfect timing to appreciate the perfect timing. While three 'middle Eastern types' are abducting Dikko outside his home, the Nigerian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom is sitting down to lunch inside the Foreign office.

  Matters arising out of Dikko kidnap
  
  The FO and Dr Dikko - The Observer, London
  
  Scapegoats must be sought
  
  The View from Ghana

  July 23, 1984 issue

• The Dikko affair - a test of efficiency?

  The failed kidnapping of Umaru Dikko from London will be remembered as the dumbest attempt at abduction in the annals of terrorism

  Nigeria - Relations will depend on outcome of trial
  
  Politics, corruption and the Dikko affair

  July 30, 1984 issue

• Umaru Dikko Kidnapping: The Game Angels Play

  So many people think it is a reel out of the film, Keystone Cops. It was, however, a deadly serious game, one which some governments have always played.

  Dikko kidnap - Nigerian claims diplomatic immunity

  Counsel for a Nigerian diplomat who together with three Israelis are charged with the kidnap of Alhaji Umaru Dikko, claimed before the Lambeth magistrate's court in South London that his client had diplomatic immunity.

  Buhari promises fair trial

  General Buhari, speaking publicly on the 'Dikko affair' for the first time, said: "Our interest is to try these fugitive politicians. The mode of trial may not meet British standards but, I assure you, it is quite a high standard

  Caught in the act

  August 6, 1984 issue

• Dikko: the myth and the reality

  ...when he 'emerged from the grave' or 'resurrected' as one man preferred to call it following the crate episode, there were quick metaphysical allusions to the whole drama coming from Nigerians...

  Reporting Nigeria

  The first batch of British journalists to have gone to Nigeria since the kidnapping

  August 13, 1984 issue

• Relations with Britain

  August 20, 1984 issue

• Nigeria - One Step Forward, Three Steps Backwards
  
  Emir of Kano and Ooni of Ife in Israel

  Israelis who have returned from Lagos, the Nigerian capital, also tell of the great popularity Israel enjoys there as a result of the attempted kidnapping of the former Nigerian Minister, Dikko, in London.

  August 27, 1984 issue

• Showers of praise: Dikko buys Talking Drum?

  September 3, 1984 issue

• Airline boss wanted by London police

  September 10, 1984 issue

• Israel - the friend Nigeria cannot acknowledge

  September 17, 1984 issue

• Look out for crates

  October 1, 1984 issue

• Buhari: beyond the rhetorics

  October 8, 1984 issue

• Buhari: Moral Ruins, Battered Credibility

  November 26, 1984 issue

• Extradition request

  The government has made a formal request to Britain for the extradition of Alhaji Umaru Dikko

  February 4, 1985 issue

Aftermath

• Comment - Base Motives All

  The shadowy figures behind the plot, the tantalizing suggestions of official Israeli connections, the unidentified Mr 'B' and the unnamed officials of the Nigerian High Commission.

• The Umaru Dikko Kidnap Affair

  Kidnappers demanded $5 million from Dikko

• Nigerian government was involved

  The involvement of the Federal Military government in the kidnap attempt on Alhaji Umaru Dikko was formally revealed

• Nigeria's initial reaction

  "impossible, my government does not get involved in things like that"

• Dikko's Interview with 'Newsnight" - "I shall return"

  Dr Umaru Dikko gave his first major interview since the abortive kidnap attempt

• Kidnappers jailed 46 years

  The four kidnappers of Alhaji Umaru Dikko have been jailed a total of 46 years by an old Bailey judge after they had pleaded guilty to two charges of kidnapping Mr Dikko and administering stupefying drugs to him.

• Behind the kidnap

  Once it looked like the police were ready to call his bluff on his claims for diplomatic immunity, he became a mine of information for the interrogators. As a police source put it: "He sang like a nightingale."

• The Kidnappers

  February 18, 1985 issue

• Dikko kidnappers to appeal

  March 11, 1985 issue

• Buhari - Our saviour or destroyer?

  On these grounds alone the extradition of Alhaji Umaru Dikko which they are now seeking will fail. They want Umaru Dikko at all cost - no matter what it takes, not because they have found him guilty of any malpractices, but because they thought he is in possession of some documents which might be very embarrassing to them.

  Dikko - the catch 22

  April 1, 1985 issue

• Dikko kidnappers to appeal

  Spare a thought for Major-General Anthony Hannaniya would you please?

  April 22, 1985 issue

• Protest to Britain over imprisoned Nigerian

  April 29, 1985 issue

• Dikko, diplomacy and expediency

  June 17, 1985 issue

• NSO boss writes to Talking Drums

  July 8, 1985 issue

Palace Coup and Aftershocks

Major General Buhari was deposed in a palace coup led by the Chief of Army Staff Major-General Ibrahim Babangida on 27 August 1985

• Umaru Dikko Statement

  Congratulations...
  
  I take this opportunity to congratulate all those who have been released from detention as well as those who have been through persecution in whatever form and to whatever extent.

  Nzeribe's views on the Buhari regime

  If only Umaru Dikko had not challenged the regime openly, he would have been left alone like other Northern politicians or dealt with leniently, for he explains that Dikko as a product of Barewa College, is well connected within the Military and the Kaduna Mafia

  September 9, 1985 issue

• Appeal in Dikko kidnap plot fails

  December 9, 1985 issue

• Nigeria Through 1985

  If you had to come out for his face to be checked, just in case Umaru Dikko was in the car and the Jihad was imminent! Sense of insecurity apart, Nigerians spent most of the year 1985 under mass misery and persecution.

  December 23/30, 1985 issue

• Release of Shagari and Ekwueme

  January 27, 1986 issue

• Shehu Shagari, Alex Ekwueme cleared

  February 3, 1986 issue