You are currently browsing the Uncle Norman weblog archives for the day 03/10/2007.
03/10/2007 by Uncle.
fter my visit to O’Hara everything went a bit quite. JR got back to the UK safe and sound and after a few weeks R&R was up and running again.
We all made our way home without incident really. I had another trip to make to visit my sister.
The Belgian authorities collected Mr Rogirst and we made him out to be victim and hero. It would seem that his luck changed after this. The authorities decided there was insufficient evidence to link him to his brothers ill fated business venture In fact he even got some of the money back that he had leant him, but had to pay some tax that was due. He had got back together with his wife, but to be honest I am not sure how long that was going to last
Marianne the French Journalist was fairly shaken up. The two days she was with us before we left she was in a bad way mentally, but improved. She had not been raped fortunately but this incident proved to be an emotional watershed for her. You will forgive me if I don’t go into anymore details than that. I can tell you that she came from a fairly wealthy family and they had put up a reward for her safe return, which was an added bonus. However when it came to her being handed over to the French authorities she was not willing to go with them and insisted on staying with me. It is not that uncommon in hostage cases for them to bond to their rescuers. Trauma and stress take their toll in different ways. In the end she came with me on the trip to visit my sister and I returned to the UK via France and took her home. It was the first time in my life that I have ever remotely resembled a babe magnet. I am pleases to say that she has spent the summer recovering and is doing very well indeed.
As for Arthur Daley, well the following tells its own story
ABUJA, July 20 (Reuters) - Suspected armed robbers shot dead a Lebanese businessman in the southern Nigerian city of Port Harcourt in the Niger Delta, the local police commissioner said on Friday.
He said the robbers locked the apartment block’s security guard inside his post and entered the Lebanese man’s house, took some of his belongings and shot him dead.
Kidnappings of foreigners are frequent in the oil-producing delta but it is unusual for expatriates to get killed.
Since September there was a military crackdown by the military on the main group believed to be responsible for the kidnapping. After a couple of weeks there was cease fire but that did not last long and by October it had all kicked off again, with a full on attack on an oil installation which left three people dead and several other seriously injured.
The Army has continued to try to stamp its authority on the region, but unless there is a politicla and social change I cannot see much progress being made. This has all the ingredients of becoming Africa’s next big civil war.
So what about O’Hara?
Well, I tried ringing him a couple of times to say goodbye, but it would seem he was unavailable to take my call. Strange that. So I rang the company and they said that he was “in the field”. Then his car was found abandoned by a police patrol and it would appear he had been kidnapped. A ransom demand was made to the company, but apparently “they had no protocol for dealing with these people” What the fuck! who the hell are they trying to kid? Anyway he didn’t have kidnap insurance and his missus was having trouble stumping up the ransom. It would seem that the US property crisis had taken its toll on their little nest egg and she could not or would not raise the wedge to get him released.
The following Reuters report was brought to myattention
PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Nigerian troops found the corpse of a man believed to be a foreign hostage floating in a creek on Saturday near a village where five people died in fighting this week, a military spokesman said.
Kidnapping of foreign workers has become commonplace in the Niger Delta, a vast wetlands region which is home to Africa’s largest oil industry, but hostages are almost always freed unharmed in exchange for money.
“The joint task force were in operation around the creeks of Ogbogoro and Ozuoba when they sighted a corpse of a white man floating on the river,” said Sagir Musa, a spokesman for the military in the Niger Delta.
There was no positive identification of the victim, he said, but his hands were tied behind his back and his mouth was obstructed.
“He apparently died from being tortured because he was kidnapped,” Musa said.I dont know for sure that this was O’Hara, but apparently two subsequent reports tend to suggest it was, especially the one saying that the only thing he had on him was a playing card.
If it was O’Hara I dont know what could have happened. He was fit and and well when we left him.
Not very happy I will grant you, but alive.
Oh come on, you didn’t think we would be so nice as to just give him a quick end did you?
Karma, what goes around comes around.
Posted in Kidnapped | 5 Comments »