Addressing a packed auditorium at Chatham House in London on 26 February, General Muhammadu Buhari may have mused about his last big encounter with the British establishment. Thirty years ago, Buhari was leading a no-nonsense military regime whose attempts to kidnap a rich Nigerian exiled politician, Umaru Dikko, in London with the help of some Israeli ex-Mossad officers, were thwarted by the Metropolitan Police. The Nigerian Airways plane, on which the hapless politician was to be anaesthetised and loaded into a crate, was detained by the British authorities. In retaliation, Buhari's regime detained a British Caledonian passenger plane in Lagos.
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