Former head of Sierra Leone’s army, Major-General Nelson Williams has been kidnapped in Nigeria, government sources said Friday, the first kidnapping of a diplomat from the west African country in more than half a century.
Sierra Leone and workers at that country’s embassy in Nigeria say kidnappers are demanding a $40 million ransom.
Maj-Gen Williams, Sierra Leone’s Deputy High Commissioner to Nigeria, was believed to have been travelling to a military graduation in Kano state.
Local security officials said they were still investigating how the kidnapping took place.
“We want to establish whether he had security escorts with him and what happened to them,” Kaduna state security official Yusuf Yakubu Soja told AFP.
“He was kidnapped on his way to Kaduna from Abuja to attend the passing out ceremony of military officers at the Armed Forces Command and Staff College in Jaji outside Kaduna.”
Two Nigerian army officers have been kidnapped on that highway in recent months.
Kidnappings are common in Nigeria, where the rich and powerful drive bulletproof cars and even hire military and police chaperones as protection from highway bandits.
They were released four days later, but officials did not say whether the kidnappers received any ransom.
