Family of Africa’s youngest billionaire offer almost $500k for info on his kidnapping

The family of Africa’s youngest billionaire have offered a 1bn Tanzanian shillings (£330,000/ $436,000) reward for the safe return of Mohammed Dewji, who was kidnapped from an exclusive hotel gym in a dawn raid.

Dewji, 43, an industrialist and former politician known as Mo, was abducted by armed men as he arrived for his daily workout at the Colosseum hotel in Dar es Salaam at 5.35am on 11 October. The regional police commissioner said it appeared that Dewji – who has pledged to give away at least half of his $1.5bn (£1.15bn) fortune to charity – had been “kidnapped by whites [white people]”.

Dewji, who was the first Tanzanian to feature on the cover of business magazine Forbes, is thought to have fallen victim to a well-planned attack in the affluent Oysterbay neighbourhood of Dar es Salaam.

“The family is offering a reward of a billion [Tanzanian] shillings to any person who has information leading to the whereabouts of our son,” Dewji’s uncle Azim Dewji said at a press conference on Monday. “We want to assure anyone with the information about the whereabouts of our son to come forward and we will treat their information as secret.”

Mohammed’s company MeTL (Mohammed Enterprises Tanzania) tweeted details of reward and said it would pay out “for any tip that will help us find our MO!”.

Mohammed, who is married with three children, is widely known to travel without a personal security detail despite the heightened threat of kidnapping in Africa. Local media quotes one of his employees as saying he has a “huge celebrity status” in Tanzania.

Police said he was dragged away by masked armed men as he arrived at the luxury hotel’s spa and leisure complex in a black Range Rover with the licence plate “Mo 1”.

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Paul Makonda, regional police commissioner in Dar es Salaam, said: “They fired a gun and then they opened the gate. Initial information indicates he was kidnapped by whites travelling in two vehicles. This kind of incident is new here”.

More than 20 people have been arrested in connection with the abduction. Tanzania’s home affairs minister, Kangi Lugola,said: “The police will never rest until the culprits are brought to book.” The hashtag #BringBackMo was trending in Tanzania.

Source: theguardian