A Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) declassified intelligence report has revealed how President Muhammadu Buhari's military government in 1984 made attempts to kidnap the late Umaru Dikko.

Umaru Dikko appearing in court in 1984 after the failed kidnap

Dikko was Nigeria's minister of transportation from 1979-1983 under former President Shehu Shagari's government.

After Buhari's military coup on December 31, 1983, Dikko and some of his colleagues in the Shagari government fled into exile.

Buhari's military regime had accused Dikko of large-scale corruption while in office.

The CIA report read: ''The elements as you may recall, were two crates at the London airport and two men in each.

''In one was Umaru Dikko, a former cabinet minister in Nigeria, living in exile in Great Britain. He had been kidnapped, drugged and packed for shipment to Nigeria.''

The crate Umaru Dikko was found inside at the airport

The document suggested that some of Dikko's associates already in a Lagos jail convinced the Nigeria secret police that they could arrange for Israeli mercenaries to bring Dikko back.

''There is evidence quite a number of business men in Europe were approached and refused to have anything to do with the matter,'' the report added.

The document also quoted media reports suggesting that the botched kidnap of Dikko may have been a collaboration between the Nigerian and Israeli governments.

Excerpts from the declassified CIA files

The Nigerian intelligence officer and the three Israelis all received prison sentences in the UK.

Diplomatic relations between the UK and Nigeria broke down and were only fully restored two years later. The Nigerian and Israeli governments have always denied involvement in the kidnapping.

Dikko died July 2014 in a London hospital at the age of 78.