Full story on the BBC News website but, in short, kidnappers here in Ghana have seized an Israeli businessman and are demanding a ransom from his family in Israel.
Kidnapping...
Here...
In Ghana.
I hope this is not the beginning of a trend. Kidnapping is not completely unheard of here, but it still sounds so foreign.
Don't get me wrong: Ghana has its fair share of serious crime. Take armed robbery, for example: so much more vindictive of late. Back in the day people just got jacked. Today they get jacked and beaten (or cut) up for not having more money lying around. What's that about?
(Poverty's resentment spilling over into your living room, that's what.)
Kidnapping is something more associated with activities in the Niger Delta than on the not-so-mean streets of Accra though.
Remember last year's assassination outside Afrodisiac? I guess that if these things are happening only once a year we should be thankful and not expect Jerry Bruckheimer to come knocking anytime soon scouting for locations for CSI West Africa.
Still: once a year is more than once a blue moon and that is not a good thing.
Bound Together
2 days ago
Just saw on the BBC that the kidnapped Israeli escaped unharmed (Thank God) by either:
ReplyDelete1. Joint action between the Ghana security forces and Israeli police (mmmm... Operation Thunderbolt Part 2?)
2. Slipping away from kidnappers in a taxi
If he did indeed slip away in a taxi,then these kidnappers did not appear to have their eyes very open.
Plus I was amused to see that they slashed the amount they demanded from $500,000 to $30,000.
Accra has not metamorphosed into the Niger Delta just yet.