Dieusmondé Tadé, a journalist with privately-owned and pro-government newspaper, Le Nouveau Réveil was on November 18, 2013, kidnapped by unknown persons in a taxi at Cocody a suburb of Abidjan.
The MFWA’s correspondent reported that Tadé boarded a commercial taxi which already had two passengers on board. Commercial taxis in Abidjan take four passengers but as soon as the journalist sat in, the driver sped off without waiting for the fourth person.
Tadé, who found this strange and suspected he could be in danger, sent a message to his colleague, “cousin, I am in danger, I am in danger”.
His abductors snatched his mobile phone from him shortly after that and threatened to kill him if he made any noise.
The journalist was taken to Agban, about 20 kilometres from Cocody, where two men and a woman in a four wheel drive with tinted glasses were waiting. He was forced into the vehicle by his abductors who masked him.
According to the correspondent, after several kilometres, Tadé heard one of the abductors telling the rest “Chao has called, Chao says we should leave him”. They then threw him out of the car into a nearby bush. This was about 2am.
Tadé waited in the bush till morning and made his way to Gomon, about 60 kilometres from Abidjan. He then bordered a bus to Elibou where he called his family and colleagues at the Le Nouveau Réveil newspaper who later went to pick him up.
The MFWA appeals to the Ivorian Police to investigate the incidence and bring the abductors to book.
For more information please contact:
Sulemana Braimah
Executive Director
MFWA
Accra
Tel: 233-0302-24 24 70
Fax: 233-0302-22 10 84
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