My Daughter is Innocent, Says Father of Detained Alleged Drug Peddler in S’Arabia

 

Zainab Aliyu, 22, a final year student of English at the Maitama Sule University Kano and daughter of a foremost journalist in Kano and Jigawa States, Habibu Aliyu, a Director of News at the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN), is currently in detention in Saudi Arabia over a bag allegedly carrying her tag containing Tramadol since December last year.

A six-man drug cartel at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport was rounded-up and arrested by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in connection with the said bag containing the drug.

Members of the syndicate at the airport confessed tagging a bag containing Tramadol with her name on December 24, 2018, while on her way to lesser Hajj with her mother and sister.

The arrested drug cartel members have since been prosecuted by a court of law in Kano. However, the court has released them on bail even as they confessed to the crime exonerating Zainab, but she is in detention in Saudi Arabia.

Speaking to journalists in Kano on Monday, Zainab's father stated that his daughter, though still in detention for alleged drug peddling in Saudi Arabia, is innocent.

According to him, "She traveled with her mother and sister for lesser hajj to Saudi Arabia.

"In the middle of the night, the Saudi Arabian security went to the hotel asking for her. My wife showed them Zainab and they expressed doubt, saying: ‘This little girl cannot do that’.

"They told her that she had forgotten her bag at the Jiddah International Airport. She said she had no other bag as she came with only one bag. They are three in number and they have only three bags. They insisted and took her away. Since then her mother never saw her again.

"Early in the morning her mother called me and told me what happened, and I rushed to the Aminu Kano International Airport where they departed, and reported the case to the NDLEA. Fortunately, NDLEA made quick intervention. We were called to the office of the deputy commandant. Some arrests were made.

"Instantly, one of the ladies involved in the tagging of the bag admitted and confessed that a senior official among the airport workers directed her to use my daughter's tag on that suspected bag and that they were given money to do that which they shared among themselves.

"Their telephones got from seven of them, though one is at large, showed that there were text messages proving the consistency of what she said-giving the colour of the bag, how it will be taken to the airport and who will pick the bag at the Saudi Arabian airport. They confessed both orally and in writing that they did it. They were detained and later prosecuted at the federal high court in Kano.

"The most worrying and devastating thing is that these people were released on bail. One of the people, as I speak to you, travelled to Saudi Arabia for lesser Hajj through the Aminu Kano International Airport, the same airport they committed the crime."

Meanwhile, Habibu has written to the presidency on the matter and has been directed to pursue the matter along with the Special Adviser on Diaspora, Abike Dabiri, to ensure the freedom of his daughter from the Saudi Arabian prison.