Abducted Tanzanian tycoon Mohamed Dewji was kidnapped in a car that had arrived from a neighboring country — and Interpol is on the case, according to a new report.
Police had identified the car’s owner and driver — but declined to identify which country it came from, in order to avoid diplomatic conflict.
The movements of the car used to kidnap Africa’s youngest billionaire had been traced on security camera footage before it escaped from view while still within Dar es Salaam, police Inspector General Simon Sirro told reporters.
“We have got the information on the car owner and the nationality, the driver who was driving it and our people at Interpol are working on it,” he said.
Local police are also going house to house in search of Dewji, according to Sirro.
Tanzania is neighbored by Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique.
Meanwhile, Dewji’s frustrated family said authorities are keeping them in the dark.
“We haven’t received any information so far,” family spokesman Azzim Dewji told Tanzanian paper The Citizen, without going into detail.
He told the outlet that the family was going through a difficult time and he would consult other relatives about possibly holding another press briefing next week.
The country’s director of criminal investigation, Robert Boaz, claimed to the outlet that police are making good progress in the hunt for Dewji — and urged the public to pray for the businessman’s safe return.
“We are progressing well with the investigations,” he told the outlet, declining to comment further as he wasn’t the official spokesperson. “Normally, much of the information on an investigation of this nature is not for public consumption.”
Politicians in the country had been pushing for independent forensic investigations into the case — something that was strongly opposed by Home Affairs Deputy Minister Hamad YusuphMasauni, the paper reported.
“If you look carefully at the statements made by the government and the police in particular, you’ll see an utter lack of seriousness on [the government’s] response on the issue at hand,” Godbless Lema, a member of the Tanzanian parliament, said earlier this week.
But the businessman’s father, Gulamabbas Dewji, said the family was confident in the police investigation.
“Security authorities are doing a good job,” Dewji told the paper.
Authorities have said Mohamed Dewji was snatched by two white men outside the oceanfront Colosseum Hotel and Fitness Club in Dar es Salaam.
The kidnappers, believed to be foreign nationals, fired shots into the air before driving off with Dewji in a car, according to witnesses.
The abductors reportedly were two white men in a Toyota Surf.
Dewji had no security guards with him at the time, reports said.
With Post wires



