European hostages shot dead in toilet
Source: Agencies |
March 11, 2012, Sunday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
THE wife of one of the guards holding a Briton and an Italian hostage in northern Nigeria said yesterday the two men were taken into a toilet and shot dead during a failed attempt to rescue them by British and Nigerian forces.
The wife, who gave her name only as Hauwa and said she was 31, cried into her hands as she spoke to Reuters.
Chris McManus and Italian Franco Lamolinara were kidnapped last May while working for a construction company in northwest Nigeria. They were killed on Thursday by their captors after gunfire erupted during an abortive rescue attempt.
Hauwa said bullets flew into the room where she and her husband were staying, killing her husband.
"After that, there were about six men who came out of the house with the two hostages," she said. "They came into our wing of the compound, pushed the captives into the toilet and just shot them. I screamed."
Forbidden entry
She denied knowing the hostages had been living in the same compound as her. She said they were kept in the main house which she was strictly forbidden to enter.
Nigerian authorities have detained five Islamist militants suspected of involvement in the kidnapping. Two of the men were arrested before the rescue attempt and three at the compound where the raid took place.
"I don't know why they didn't arrest me, I really didn't know anything about the hostages. No guard was allowed in the main house. The forces saw me crying next to my husband's body, which they took," she said.
She said she had lived in the house for four months after her husband got a job there as a guard. But she said she never suspected anything was wrong.
The people using the main house arrived at night and left very early each morning, she said.
The crime scene was largely unguarded yesterday with bystanders wandering in and out. Bullet holes and blood spattered the walls.
The wife, who gave her name only as Hauwa and said she was 31, cried into her hands as she spoke to Reuters.
Chris McManus and Italian Franco Lamolinara were kidnapped last May while working for a construction company in northwest Nigeria. They were killed on Thursday by their captors after gunfire erupted during an abortive rescue attempt.
Hauwa said bullets flew into the room where she and her husband were staying, killing her husband.
"After that, there were about six men who came out of the house with the two hostages," she said. "They came into our wing of the compound, pushed the captives into the toilet and just shot them. I screamed."
Forbidden entry
She denied knowing the hostages had been living in the same compound as her. She said they were kept in the main house which she was strictly forbidden to enter.
Nigerian authorities have detained five Islamist militants suspected of involvement in the kidnapping. Two of the men were arrested before the rescue attempt and three at the compound where the raid took place.
"I don't know why they didn't arrest me, I really didn't know anything about the hostages. No guard was allowed in the main house. The forces saw me crying next to my husband's body, which they took," she said.
She said she had lived in the house for four months after her husband got a job there as a guard. But she said she never suspected anything was wrong.
The people using the main house arrived at night and left very early each morning, she said.
The crime scene was largely unguarded yesterday with bystanders wandering in and out. Bullet holes and blood spattered the walls.
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