Kidnapped Sierra Leone diplomat freed, Nigeria police say

BAUCHI, Nigeria – A diplomat from Sierra Leone who was abducted last week has been freed, but it is not clear whether any ransom was paid to secure his release, Nigerian police said Wednesday.

Police spokesman Don Awunah told reporters that Sierra Leone’s deputy high commissioner to Nigeria, Maj. Gen. Alfred Nelson Williams, was found in sound health Tuesday afternoon and has been reunited with his embassy in Abuja and his family.

Neither the police nor the Nigerian government gave details of how the diplomat was freed.

Nigerian workers at the embassy had said the abductors were demanding $40 million for his release.

An officer at Nigeria’s ministry of foreign affairs said the abductors had been speaking with top government officials from Sierra Leone. The officer insisted on speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

Williams was abducted on Friday while travelling to Kaduna, a northwestern state of Nigeria, to attend a military parade. He was abducted along a major highway well known for armed robbery and abductions.

He was the first diplomat to be abducted in Nigeria.