Workers call for release of Maputo businessman kidnapped on 22 December

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Workers call for release of Maputo businessman kidnapped on 22 December

8:26 CAT | 11 Feb 2022

Photo: O País

More than 30 employees of a businessman kidnapped in Maputo on December 22 of last year are desperate to ascertain the whereabouts of their boss and remedy their consequent lack of wages.

This is the other side of the consequences of the kidnappings in the country, in which not only the victims’ families are in despair, but their employees and dependents are also impacted.

This is a case which, like others, has not yet been clarified by the National Criminal Investigation Service (SERNIC).

Businessman Ibrahim Ahmed [Ibrahim Versalhes] was kidnapped on the morning of December 22, 2021, from the corner of Avenidas do Rio Limpopo and Ahmed Sekou Touré in Maputo city.

The abduction took place outside a building site under the victim’s management. Work there has since been at a standstill, but workers still attend daily in search of news.

Nearly two months later, nothing is known about the whereabouts of the entrepreneur, to the despair of his employees, who met once again this Thursday, not to claim their wages, but to solicit information on the whereabouts of their employer.

“Our greatest wish is for him to be restored to freedom and to return to family life. It is true that we are concerned about our pay, but our biggest concern is his health, so we appeal to those responsible to do everything necessary to secure his release,” one of the workers said.

“We don’t have any information about our boss. We would like him to be freed; our life has practically stopped, because he was our pillar,” another employee said.

The businessman’s family had declined to make any statements, according to one of the workers interviewed by ‘O País’.

When the kidnapping took place, the National Criminal Investigation Service undertook to investigate, but, 50 days later, it still has not commented on this or other cases.

‘O País’ tried to contact SERNIC spokesman in Maputo city, Hilário Lole, this Thursday, but he did not answer calls or respond to messages.

By Amandio Borges

Source: O País