The Canadian Rotarian, Mrs. Julie Ann Mulligan abducted in Kaduna state is yet to regain her freedom. But the Police says she is hale and hearty and that they are working assiduously to secure her release.
Addressing a press conference on Sunday to confirm her ordeal, the state police commissioner of police, Mr. Tambai Yabo Muhammad said the kidnappers who were demanding for the sum of N100 million before setting her free have now scaled down their demand to N20 million. He blamed the lady’s predicament on
improper security arrangement for her arrival and stays in the country.

According to the police, Mrs. Mulligan, a 45 years old lady came into Kaduna on 15th April 2009 in company of four others “on a group study exchange programme” under the auspices of the Rotary International Club and held their meeting without the knowledge of the police. The team he said had earlier been to Kano and Katsina before arriving Kaduna. They had their meeting at Tafawa Balewa Guest Inn at the end of which “each of the local Rotarians living in Kaduna were given one person to take care of. Accordingly, “the abducted lady was attached to Moses Kadeer, a Nigerian resident at No. 29 Unity Link Road, Narayi High cost extension. He took the lady there and that is where the incident happened. “At about 2240 hrs on 16th April 2009, Moses Kadeer went to Barnawa Police Station to report that while he was returning home with his guest after the rotary meeting, some unknown men in a Toyota Corolla Car, metallic grey in colour, blocked them by the entrance of his house at about 2200 hours, ordered him out of his car at gun point and abducted the white lady to unknown destination”, Muhammad disclosed.

Moses he said further reported that the gun men seized his car keys, dispossessed him of his wallet containing about N18,000, a GSM phone with SIM No.07088871951 and a camera which they made away with.
Reacting to the incident, the Police commissioner, Mr. Muhammad exonerated Kaduna state government and the police command from the security lapse saying that “from the very beginning we were not aware of their arrival (foreigners), they just came in, went to Tafawa Balawa Guest Inn, had their meeting, closed late and dispatched. “The organizer of the event (Rotary Club) did not write to inform the police, so neither the police nor the Kaduna state government was aware of their presence in the beginning. The police had no information about the arrival of the lady and the event she came for”.

Declaring that the committed crime is nobody’s fault but the fault of the system, the police boss agued that “under normal circumstances, it is necessary that if you are bringing in any stranger, if you are doing any function, you have to put the police on notice by letting us know the date, time, place and what you intend to do so that we can provide security. But in the case of the Canadian lady, no information whatsoever came to the police. We got to know about her only when the incident was reported on the 16th of April 2009”.

Speaking further, the commissioner condemned the poor arrangement for her accommodation as according to him “when you come into town you should not stay in quack places, you should stay in a well established place, a place where you can have all the security you can think of. Narayi High cost in Barnawa, that one na
real slum of Kaduna. It is a quack place. You cannot compare the hotels there with Asa Pyramid”.
However, Muhammad said his command is doing its best to get the lady back from her kidnappers stressing that “we are in contact with them through the telephone which they took from Moses Kadeer” adding that Mr. Kadeer is now helping the police in their investigations even as he was not categorical on the arrest of
anybody in connection with the unfortunate abduction.