‘KIDNAPPED’ AFRICAN BILLIONAIRE RETURNS HOME

DAR ES SALAAM/NAIROBI : Africa’s youngest billionaire, snatched a week ago off the street outside a luxury hotel in Tanzania, has returned home unharmed after being released by his kidnappers, police said on Saturday.

Mohammed Dewji, 43-year-old CEO of the METL Group family conglomerate, was seized as he arrived for a morning workout in Tanzania’s commercial capital Dar es Salaam last week. Forbes estimates his net worth as $1.5 billion, making him Africa’s 17th richest man and its youngest billionaire.

Lazaro Mambosasa, Dar es Salaam’s police commander, told Reuters that Dewji was abandoned by his kidnappers in the city’s Gymkhana area at 2:30 am local time.

Dewji had been held in a house in an area where police were about to conduct a house-tohouse search, he said.

“He was tied legs, hands and face therefore he could not see. He could not identify the abductors throughout the period of captivity,” Mambosasa said. He had only bruises on his hands and feet where they were tied.

“He told us that they treated him very well and gave him food,” he said.

Dewji’s family had offered a reward of 1 billion Tanzania shillings ($440,000) for information leading to his release, though it was not immediately clear how much the kidnappers had demanded. Speaking at a news conference, Inspector General of Police Simon Sirro said Dewji had told them the suspects spoke in English and “broken Swahili” and that a vehicle they had travelled on had foreign plates.