Former Governor of Kaduna State and Opposition Parties’ leader, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, has condemned the kidnap of the Deputy High Commissioner of Sierra Leone to Nigeria, Major General Nelson Williams. He urged the Federal Government to immediately curb the rate of insecurity in the nation, particularly kidnapping, as the phenomenon has now been internationalised.

Condemning the abduction of the envoy along the Kaduna-Abuja highway, Musa said it is an embarrassment to Nigeria, as “the war against insecurity seems not to be working.”

All effort at tracing the Deputy High Commissioner’s whereabouts has not yielded result, just as officials of Kaduna State Government have not reacted to the unfortunate situation, which occurred last Friday, as the envoy was travelling to attend an official engagement at the Armed Forces Command and Staff College (AFCSC), Jaji.

A top official of the state Government, who pleaded anonymity, told The Guardian that “the state Government cannot react to this diplomatic matter because it is beyond our purview. It has to do with high security and diplomatic issue and we hope the matter is being handled at the appropriate quarters. There is nothing we can say for now at the level of the state government. And we don’t even know exactly where he was kidnapped along the highway, whether it was Abuja, Niger State or the Kaduna axis. So, you have to wait for the Federal Government. I am sure investigation is going on.”

Also, no officer of the Kaduna Police Command volunteered any information concerning the kidnap of the envoy.

Former Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) of the Command, Alhaji Zubairu Abubakar, who was recently promoted to Superintendent (SP), could not react to the kidnap, just as he said he had left his post and had been redeployed.

Alhaji Musa called on the Federal Government to immediately step up security in the country to give confidence to the international community on the safety of all diplomats in Nigeria.

He said the kidnap of the Sierra Leonean envoy might further erode government’s effort at attracting foreign investment.

Meanwhile, the Sierra Leone High Commission has issued a statement on the matter.

The statement read: “The ministry of foreign affairs and international cooperation of Sierra Leone regrets to inform that in the early hours of this morning July 1 2016, the Deputy High Commissioner of the Republic of Sierra Leone to the Federal Republic of Nigeria,