Zainab Aliyu: FG secures student's release from Saudi Arabia

The Federal Government has secured the release of Zainab Aliyu, a student who was wrongly arrested for drugs trafficking in Saudi Arabia.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs disclosed on Tuesday, April 30, 2019 that Zainab was released after the government was able to establish her innocence.

Aliyu, a student of Maitama Sule University, Kano, was arrested by Saudi authorities on December 26, 2018 for allegedly travelling with a luggage containing unlawful substance believed to be tramadol.

Zainab had travelled through the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport (MAKIA) for Lesser Hajj with her mother, Maryam, and sister, Hajara.

A petition filed by Aliyu's family later led the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) to uncover a cartel at MAKIA which specialised in planting illicit drugs in travellers' luggage.

The arrest of seven members of the cartel led to the discovery that the tramadol-bearing luggage was planted on Aliyu without her knowledge.

The ministry also disclosed that Ibrahim Abubakar, another Nigerian who was most likely another victim of the cartel, will be released to the Nigerian Mission in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, May 1.

Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, Mrs Abike Dabiri-Erewa, had disclosed on Monday, April 29 that the government was working on securing the release of three Nigerians, including Aliyu, from the Saudi Arabian government.

Saudi operates a very strict form of Islamic law and regularly dishes out death sentences for crimes such as homicide, rape, and armed robbery, facing backlash from many human rights organisations.

A Nigerian woman, Kudirat Afolabi, was executed in Mecca on Monday, April 1 for drugs trafficking. Three days later on April 4, another Nigerian, Wahid Somade, was arrested at Jeddah airport with about 1,138g of cocaine.

According to Dabiri-Erewa, eight Nigerians have been killed in the past few years after drug trafficking convictions in Saudi Arabia and no fewer than 20 Nigerians are currently on death row in the ultra-conservative state.