Skip to main content

NIGERIA: Policemen killed as Americans and Canadians are kidnapped in Nigeria

Kidnappers have abducted two Americans and two Canadians in the northern Nigerian state of Kaduna, killing two police officers, a police spokesman said on Wednesday.
Kidnappings are rife in Nigeria, where domestic security is weak, though they overwhelmingly target other Nigerians. However, abductions of foreigners are not uncommon.
The foreigners were ambushed by unknown gunmen on their way from the town of Kafanchan in Kaduna state to the capital Abuja, Mukhtar Aliyu, a spokesman for the Kaduna state police, said by telephone.
Kafanchan is about 3-1/2 hours’ drive northeast of Abuja.
“The two police escorts attached to them engaged the kidnappers in a fierce gun battle, which resulted in the unfortunate death of the two police officers,” Aliyu said.
The United States embassy in Nigeria declined to comment.
Global Affairs Canada is aware of the reports of the kidnapping of two Canadian citizens and consular officials in Nigeria are in contact with local authorities to gather additional information, spokesman John Babcock said.
Canada cannot release further details on the case due to privacy concerns, Babcock said.
This kidnapping will increase pressure on President Muhammadu Buhari’s government to deliver on security in Nigeria. The recent communal clashes between Fulani herdsmen and farmers that left over 70 dead highlighted the continued failure of the government to secure the lives of Nigerians.
In October, kidnappers took four Britons in Delta state in the south. Three were released after negotiations, but the other, Ian Squire, was killed.
The Abuja-Kaduna road has long been a haunt for kidnappers. Last February, two German archaeologists were abducted in the region, though were later freed.
Source: africanews

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ex-VP Mujuru 'was hit on the cheek with a stone by Zanu-PF activist': Spokesperson

Harare - A Zimbabwean opposition leader and her entourage were Thursday attacked with stones by suspected ruling party activists in Harare, her party said. Joice Mujuru, a former vice president of the country who is now leader of the National People's Party (NPP), and her supporters were pelted while on the campaign trail. Zimbabwe is due to hold general elections before July - the first polls since independence hero Robert Mugabe was ousted after 37 years in power. Mujuru is one of the prominent contenders. Mujuru was hit on the cheek with a stone and later addressed a rally in the working class suburb of Glen Norah after she received medical treatment, her spokesperson said. Mujuru "was going to address a rally ...she passed through a shopping centre and when people realised it was her, they came out of the shops to cheer her", Jeffryson Chitando told AFP. "She got out of her car and greeted the people, and that is when Zanu-PF (activists) started thro...
Post a Comment
Read more

Kenya gov't arrests another Odinga ally, AU 'ready to help

Government in Kenya has arrested Miguna Miguna, the other legislator that actively participated in the illegal ‘swearing in’ ceremony of opposition leader Raila Odinga. The self-styled National Resistance Movement ( NRM ) General Miguna Miguna was arrested on Friday morning, shortly after he raised the alarm on a police raid at his home. The National Resistance Movement is the resistance wing of the opposition National Super Alliance Coalition ( NASA ). The Director of Criminal Investigations George Kinoti confirmed that he was arrested for administering an illegal oath and being a member of  NRM , an organisational that has been declared ‘criminal’. “He publicly declared that he is the general of  NRM , which is already declared a proscribed group. By the time he declared publicly, there was a gazette notice by the minister. How can we let it go? We are law enforcers,” said Kinoti. Kinoti added that Miguna told ‘people to burn portraits of a democratically elec...
Post a Comment
Read more

NIGERIA: Nigeria flying citizens from Libya amid 'endemic' abuse

Nigeria  is flying out thousands of its citizens from  Libya  who face grave abuses such as rape and slavery as they attempt to reach Europe through the war-torn North African nation. Large numbers of Nigerians have been trapped in Libya where they were trying to cross to Italy by sea, but were stopped by local armed factions and the Libyan coastguard. Nigerian officials on a fact-finding mission to Libya expressed shock  at what they saw and heard from victims. "They talked about various abuse - systematic, endemic, and exploitation of all kinds," said Nigeria's Foreign Affairs Minister Geoffrey Onyeama. "There were obviously interests that wanted to keep as many of them there as possible because they were commodities." Al Jazeera's Ahmed Idris, reporting from the Libyan capital Tripoli, said Nigerians there told of abuses such as slavery, rape, imprisonment, and torture. "These happened either in the hands of the authorities or people-smugg...
Post a Comment
Read more