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‘How Queen Elizabeth Stopped Buhari’s Regime From Extraditing Umaru Dikko’

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Elder statesman and Second Republic politician, Isyaku Ibrahim, has narrated how the late Queen Elizabeth helped stopped the extradition of a former Transportation Minister, Umaru Dikko, by the General Muhammadu Buhari-led (Rtd) regime in 1984.

Naija News recalls that on July 5th, 1984, in what is now infamously known as the ‘Dikko Affair’, the Buhari regime allegedly sanctioned the abduction and extra-ordinary rendition of Dikko, who served in the Shehu Shagari government toppled by Buhari.

Dikko was found with a Jewish doctor drugged and kept in a crate at Stansted Airport destined for Lagos State.

Speaking with Daily Trust on Saturday in Abuja, Ibrahim said he was deeply pained by the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

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According to the elder statesman, the late British monarch played a key role in stopping the extradition of Umaru Dikko.

Ibrahim said: “When I was in New York with the present president of Ghana, I was called and the lady was crying. I asked her what happened and she told me that she heard that Umaru Dikko had been kidnapped. I asked if she had spoken to the police and she said no. I told her not to call the police.

“I said I would keep her posted about what I was doing. I then called my business associate with the British Aerospace, who happened to be Major Hamset. He was a colleague of Queen Elizabeth’s security man. Hamset had decided to retire. He didn’t want to continue in the army; he said he wanted to make money. So, when I called him to tell him what happened, he said I should put my telephone down.

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“He quickly called his colleague (the queen’s security man) and told him that they had kidnapped Umaru Dikko. He then went to the queen, saluted, and said, ‘We have a bad news.’ He told the queen that they had kidnapped Dikko. She screamed and said Dikko was her guest. This goes to show you how sharp the queen’s memory was.”

Jewish Doctor

He said the Queen then directed her security man to call Margaret Thatcher (the then British prime minister) and tell her what was happening.

“Can you believe it? Wallahi, within 20 minutes the British airspace, sea, and ground were sealed. The whole of Great Britain was sealed. Then, at about 2 pm or 2:30 pm, Major Hamset called me and said, ‘I have good news for you. Umaru Dikko has been found with a Jewish doctor in a crate.’”

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According to Ibrahim, the Jewish doctor was supposed to be injecting him until they put them on the plane for onward delivery to Nigeria.

Naija News reports that Britain’s longest-reigning monarch and the nation’s figurehead for seven decades died on Thursday at age 96.

The elder statesman said the queen loved Nigeria and would be greatly missed.