Embassy, Police stay silent on abduction

A week after gunmen kidnapped a German expatriate, Michael Cremza in Kano, the police and the German embassy in Nigeria have offered very little concerning what is being done to rescue him.

On April 16, 2018, Cremza, an Engineer with Dantata and Sawoe,was kidnapped in Kano by gunmen after the police officer who was detailed to watch over him, was shot dead from pointblank range.

The gunmen arrived the scene of the incident in a black VW Golf, Premium Times had reported.

Abubakar Muhammad, security personnel in charge of securing Dantata and Sawoe's equipment, said the incident occurred in the early hours of April 16.

"The three gunmen started shooting sporadically immediately they arrived and shot the mobile policeman attached to the abducted engineer. A stray bullet also hit a truck driver in the area," he said.

In a statement, the Kano State Police Command spokesperson, Magaji Majia disclosed that the officer killed was a Sergeant.

Majia’s statement had read in parts: "The Kano state police command is displeased to inform the general public of an ugly incident which occurred today Monday 16th April, 2018 at about 0745hrs along Road, Kano, where an armed gang of five men in a Motor vehicle ambushed and opened fire on a motor vehicle conveying the staff of Dantata & Sawoe construction company going to a construction site.

"The attackers killed one police sergeant attached to Special Protection Unit (SPU) on Escort duty and abducted Mr. Michael Cremza, a German national working with the company."

German embassy refuses to comment on abduction

When Pulse reached out to the German embassy for comments, Mr. Ludwig Jung, First Secretary, Head of Press & Public Diplomacy, Desk Officer Nigerian Foreign Policy, Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, wrote back to say:

“As a matter of general policy, the German Federal Foreign Office does not comment on cases of abduction.

“Kind regards”.

also rang police spokesperson Jimoh Moshood who politely declined comments for this story.

Police has nothing to say

On Monday, April 23, Pulse put a call across to the emergency phone lines (08032419754, 08123821575) made public by the Kano State Police Command. An officer who picked up, first said he never heard of the abduction.

When Pulse took him through the events of April 16 and reeled out the name of the kidnapped German over and over again, the officer asked that we called back in a few minutes.

When Pulse dialed the Kano State Police Command’s number a few minutes later, the officer said he had nothing to say about the police rescue operations concerning the kidnap.

Moments after Cremza’s kidnap, Kano State Commissioner of Police, Rabiu Yusuf, said the police had “hurriedly assembled a crack team of Police detectives and deployed them to cordon off the scene of the incident, with a mandate to comb and arrest the fleeing gunmen”.

Cases of abduction in Nigeria are rife; especially in the war ravaged northeast region where terrorist sect Boko Haram often kidnaps schoolgirls and demands ransom from government.

There have also been a spate of kidnappings involving foreign expatriates in Nigeria in recent times.