Gunmen targeted a four-wheel drive car at around 8.30pm after it left the airport’s international terminal, seizing the British man who was returning to a residential area of Lagos, according to security sources.
The Nigerian driver of the vehicle was shot but survived.
A statement on Friday, the British High Commission (BHM) said: “The BHM is working closely with others to secure the release of the hostage.
“Because of the nature of this incident, the BHM is not going into further detail about it.”
Efforts to get the local police to comment proved abortive.
There was no indication if the victim was employed with any of the major companies with British connections operating in Nigeria like Royal Dutch Shell, British Airways, Unilever and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Kidnapping of expatriates by armed gangs seeking ransom has been rife in Nigeria’s oil producing southeast, but is not common in Lagos were most foreigners live.
A British businessman was, however, kidnapped in March in an up market district of Nigeria’s commercial capital but was released four days later. It was not clear if a ransom was paid.
Risk analysts Drum Cussac have reported a “noticeable upsurge” in the number of kidnappings in the southwest of the country, including Lagos.
The consultancy said: “Foreign nationals were targeted in the affluent Lagos areas of Ikoyi, Victoria Island and Epe-Lekki, sparking speculation that organised criminal gangs have renewed their focus on the city’s upscale districts given their relatively permissive security environments.”
Among Nigerians that have been kidnapped in Lagos recently is abducted a staff of Hyundai Motors Nigeria Limited, Mrs. Chinyere Nwajei, who was abducted in Festac Town area on her way back from work on Tuesday, July 9.
Her abductors later made contact with her family, demanding N25million.
Chairman of Ejigbo Local Council Development Authority (LCDA), Kehinde Oladapo Bamigbetan, was also abducted in Ejigbo, also in Lagos on Monday, April 15.
The kidnappers initially demanded a ransom of N155million before his release.
Bamigbetan, a former Chief Press Secretary to former Governor Bola Tinubu of Lagos, was released a few days later and the police claim to have killed seven and arrested two of the kidnappers.
Source: Daily Independent
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