Africa’s youngest billionaire kidnapped by gunmen from luxury hotel

Posted by admin Africa & World Politics, Headlines Friday, October 12th, 2018

Tanzanian businessman Mohammed Dewji at his office in Dar es Salaam on April 23, 2015.

(CNN)Gunmen have kidnapped an African billionaire from a luxury hotel in Dar es Salaam, the capital of Tanzania, police told CNN.

Mohammed Dewji, 43, was taken by the men who waylaid him as he left the hotel gym after his early morning workout at around 6.30 am local time, police said.

The abductors, who are believed to be foreign nationals, accessed the gym through gates that are believed to have been left open deliberately, Dar es Salaam regional police commissioner Lazaro Mambosaso told CNN.

They drove into the hotel and opened fire before bundling Dewji into a car and speeding off, said Dar es Salaam regional police commissioner Lazaro Mambosaso.

“They came in a car to the hotel and started shooting in the air before they took him away. We are questioning the staff who were on duty at the time,” the commissioner said.

The motive for the kidnapping is still unknown, although police expect this to be a “ransom” kidnapping.

Reports about Dewji being found are false — police have been deployed to discover his whereabouts, according to Mambosaso.

Dewji is Africa’s youngest billionaire and runs the METL group, a family business founded by his father in the 1970s, that operates across six African countries.