US and Canadian citizens Kidnapped in Nigeria freed

Luck is on the side of the two American and two Canadian citizens who were kidnapped in Nigeria on Wednesday. 

Police say the four victims have been freed by their abductors on Saturday. They were found during a joint military and police operation

Two of their police escorts were killed during an exchange of fire with the abductors.

Kidnapping for ransom is common in Nigeria, with foreigners and high-profile Nigerians frequently targeted.

The Americans and Canadians were all in good health, AFP quoted a police spokesman as saying.

They were abducted while travelling in two vehicles from the town of Kafanchan in Kaduna state to Abuja at a forested area north of the capital Abuja

Two German archaeologists were abducted in the region in February last year. They were later freed.

Last October, four Britons were abducted in the Niger Delta region. One, I an Squire was killed while three others were released after negotiations.

Recently, the Nigerian army announced that the leader of the deadly gang who kidnapped and killed Squire, Peregbakumo Oyawerikumo, known as Karowei, has been killed.

A manhunt Karowei, had been under way in southern Nigeria since last year.

A special military task force said it arrested the gang leader in a village.  As the task force led him back to his camp they were ambushed and in the fighting, Karowei was killed, the army said

The British Foreign Office on November 6th, last year announced the killing of Squire by his abductors.

Dr. Squire, 57-year old optician was on his fourth visit to Burutu, Delta State on health charity work, when he was kidnapped on 13 October.

The contemptible kidnappers captured him and three other Britons from their accommodation, to demand ransom. While they released three others, Squire not survive it.

“Squire, a man who had left his thriving practice in Shepperton Surrey, to offer succor and sight to poor Nigerians. He and the three colleagues, David Donovan, his wife Shirley and Alanna Carson captured with him were in Nigeria to offer cataract operations and eye check-ups to Delta people. What a deplorable way to reward a ‘lovely, quiet man who only wanted to help the Nigerian poor’!”, said Vanguard report.

 London Metro newspaper, said Squire ran his own optical service in Shepperton, Surrey, and had been founder and chairman of Christian charity Mission for Vision since 2003.

Friend Monica Chard told the Metro: ‘He was a lovely, quiet man who everyone knew and loved as the village optician. ‘He went out to Africa every year with the charity and his wife was also involved. He just wanted to help people see who otherwise would not have had any help.

‘His widow must be devastated, especially after three weeks of hell waiting to find out if he was alive. ‘The people who kidnapped him are despicable. There are too many awful people in the world and he was definitely one of the good ones.’ Squire founded the charity to provide training and eye equipment for clinics in several African countries, including Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, Mozambique, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

According to his website he had made 13 trips for the charity since 2003, accompanied by other opticians and volunteers. The Christian charity’s website says: ‘As a Christian charity we partner with missionaries and churches in the areas we visit.

 ‘The clinical work is combined with Christian ministry with a view to providing vision both physical and spiritual.’

Squire was credited with the invention of a portable solar powered frame and lens cutting machine to enable people to make prescription glasses in remote regions. According to the Shepperton and Sunbury Rotary Club, where Squire delivered several speeches about the charity, he aimed to provide one of the machines to each of his students in Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, for them to take back to their rural communities. Squire had visited Nigeria on three separate occasions, having first visited the country in 2013.