‘Asthma attack’ killed British missionary kidnapped in Nigeria

A BRITISH missionary who died while being held by kidnappers in Nigeria may have succumbed to a fatal asthma attack while in captivity, it was reported yesterday.

Ian Squire, 57, an optician from Shepperton in Surrey, was abducted along with three British colleagues in Nigeria’s remote southern Delta region three weeks ago. On Monday, the Foreign Office said that his friends had now been released but that Mr Squire had died while still a hostage.

While the Foreign Office has refused to disclose how Mr Squire died, Nigerian newspaper reports have now claimed that he suffered an asthma attack while unable to access medication.

A security source told Punch, a Nigerian newspaper: “Unfortunately, one of the male victims who is asthmatic and diabetic, died while in captivity as a result of complications from his ailments.” It is understood that after Mr Squire’s death, the kidnappers panicked and dropped the other three hostages off in a village in Bayelsa state, relatively close to the area where they had originally been abducted.

Separately, The Times reported that David Donovan and his wife Shirley, two of the other kidnapped missionaries, had survived a previous kidnapping during their time in Nigeria. The area of the Delta where they work is a known haunt of armed robbers, pirates and militants, although the missionaries enjoyed the goodwill of local community leaders for the health clinics they had been running.

Tom Mcguire, 69, a pastor and friend of the Donovans, told The Times: “It is quite dangerous there, the main danger is the kidnappings. But they weren’t bothered by the danger. They just loved to see the people getting healed. A gang previously made an attempt to kidnap them using big power boats in the area.”

Mr and Mrs Donovan, along with Alanna Carson, the fourth hostage, from Ballymoney, Co Antrim, have now returned to the UK to recover from their ordeal.

Kidnappings in the Delta region are generally done for money, although it is not known if any ransom negotiations were under way when the missionaries were freed. Mr Squire founded the Christian charity Mission for Vision to provide training and eye equipment for clinics in developing countries. In 2013, he joined forces with the Donovans, who run their own Christian health charity called New Foundations, with a string of remote clinics in the Delta region.

Mr Squire was credited with developing a solar-powered, portable lens-grinding machine for the clinics.