LIKE UMARU, LIKE NNAMDI…
Dikko’s Crate and Kanu’s handcuffs in Fendi, anyone who knows Buhari and his tendency to recycle archaic tactics, with no iota of doubt, will know that if he can do it once, He can do it again and again.
On the 4th of July 1984, British Customs made a very strange and unlikely seizure at the Stansted airport,2 crates, 1.2 x 1.2 x1.6 meters in size, declared as diplomatic baggage from the Nigerian High Commission.
The Crates were to be transported on a Nigerian Airways Boeing 707 aircraft that arrived from Lagos the previous evening,with several security agents on board.The Pilot declared that the Plane was to pick up diplomatic baggage from the Nigerian High Commission, and the security officials duly identified themselves and stated that they were there to protect the baggage…. but things were not to go as planned.
The crates were not labeled as diplomatic bags as required by Article 27(4) of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, and proper documentation that would have made sure that the crates were not inspected were not provided, Coupled with the fact that the Customs officers, earlier that evening had received an all-ports warning alert about a certain kidnap in London, they had no choice but to open the crates.
In one of the crates, they found 2 men.
Levi-Arie Shapiro and Umaru Dikko, who was found unconscious, Shapiro was an Israeli Doctor and Dikko, was a former Nigerian minister. But the mystery was not over, the second crate also contained 2 men, Alexander Barak and Felix Abithol who were both MOSSAD agents.
Dikko was the Transport Minister under the civilian administration of President Sheu Shagari, from 1979 to 1983 when the government was overthrown by a military coup led by General Buhari.
After seizing power, Buhari released a list of former government officials accused of different crimes, and Umaru Dikko topped the list. He was accused of embezzling money running into about 6 billion US Dollars in Oil profits from the national treasury.
Dikko fled to London and settled there. Buhari government went after him in a Nigerian-Israeli joint operation that birthed the Hollywood-style kidnap of July 4th,1984.
A group of Nigerian security agents, Led by ex-Army Major Mohammed Yusufu traveled to London and rented an apartment on Cromwell road, posing as refugees from the new regime of General Muhammadu Buhari. MOSSAD agents put up in hotels, posing as anti-apartheid activists, the two groups were working separately but towards one common goal.
They searched everywhere for Umaru Dikko, narrowing the search towards Hide park where most wealthy Nigerians were located.
Their hard work finally paid off On June 30 1984, a MOSSAD agent spotted Dikko while driving down Queensway in Bayswater. The agent parked his car and tailed Dikko to his house in Porchester Terrace on foot. The house was then placed on constant surveillance while plans were kickstarted for his kidnap.
The MASSOB employed Doctor Shapiro who was a consultant anesthetist and director of the intensive care unit at HaSharon Hospital, to drug Dikko and insert an endotracheal tube to keep him from choking on his vomit while being transported in the crate.
Dikko was kidnapped on the 4th of July, outside his house, He was taken away in a van that had Major Mohammed Yesufu behind the wheels, he was then drugged by Doctor Shapiro. Fortunately and unfortunately, the kidnap was witnessed by Elizabeth Hayes, Dikko’s secretary and she wasted no time in notifying the authorities.
After the cases were opened, Umaru Dikko was taken to the hospital and seventeen men were arrested in relation to the case. Four of them, Shapiro, Yusufu, Barak, and Abithol were convicted and sentenced to prison terms of 10 to 14 years, though they were released and deported after serving between six to eight and a half.
The British government wasted no time in showing how they felt, they immediately expelled two members of the Nigerian High Commission in London, including the High commissioner.
Expectedly, the Nigerian and Israeli governments denied involvement in the saga, but it affected the diplomatic relationship between Nigeria and Britain for about two years.

Fast forward to Tuesday, June 29th, 2021, Nigerians woke up to Pictures of Nnamdi Kanu in a fine Fendi Tracksuits and on his wrists was not a Rolex or Hublot, but handcuffs, with a swollen face, his eyes barely opened, something some people are seriously arguing to be the effect of a high dosage of drugs that was not self-inflicted…probably, just to repeat history to the letters, the same one administered on Dikko way back in 1984.
Buhari is repeating history, this time not in London…and this time, mother luck smiled on him.