Saudi Arabia Releases 3 Nigerian Pilgrims Wrongly Accused Of Drug Trafficking

Nigeria has secured the merchandise of 3 pilgrims who were detained successful Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, past month  implicit alleged cause trafficking.

The freed pilgrims are Mrs. Maryam Hussain Abdullahi, Mrs. Abdullahi Bahijja Aminu and Mr. Abdulhamid Saddieq.

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA’s) spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, revealed this yesterday.

He said their state followed weeks of relentless engagements by the chairman/chief enforcement of NDLEA, Brig Gen Mohamed  Marwa (rtd) with the enactment of the General Directorate of Narcotics Control (GDNC) successful Saudi Arabia with the afloat enactment of President Bola  Tinubu and the assistance of the attorney-general of the federation and curate of Justice, Prince Lateef Fagbemi, curate of Foreign Affairs. Yusuf Tuggar, curate of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Mr. Festus Keyamo, and the nationalist information advisor (NSA), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu.

A syndicate operating astatine the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport (MAKIA), Kano had tagged bags containing illicit drugs with the names of the 3 unsuspecting Nigerians who travelled connected an Ethiopian Airlines formation ET940, which departed Kano connected August 6, 2025, to Jeddah connected the lesser hajj. They were aboriginal arrested successful Saudi Arabia for alleged cause trafficking.

Following complaints to the NDLEA brag by their families implicit the detention of the victims successful Saudi Arabia aft the completion of their lesser hajj connected an allegation of trafficking successful illicit substances, an probe was launched to unravel what happened.

The probe led to the apprehension of 55-year-old cause kingpin Mohammed Ali Abubakar alias Bello Karama and 3 different members of the syndicate, including the hose officials down the shipment of the illicit substances, for which the 3 guiltless pilgrims were detained successful Jeddah.

Since then, charges person been filed against Mohammed Ali Abubakar and 3 different members of the syndicate: Celestina Emmanuel Yayock, Abdulbasit Adamu Sagagi and Jazuli Kabir.

Armed with the result of the NDLEA investigation, the charges filed against members of the syndicate, and different grounds to beryllium the pilgrims’ innocence, Marwa engaged with his Saudi counterpart astatine aggregate levels and antithetic locations, including Saudi Arabia, successful compliance with President Tinubu’s directive that nary Nigerian suffers unjustly successful a overseas land.

The engagements led to the merchandise of 1 of the 3 Nigerians from custody connected Sunday, September 14, and the remaining 2 connected Monday, September 15, 2025.

While expressing happiness implicit the development, Marwa commended his counterpart astatine the Saudi GDNC for upholding the essence of the Memorandum of Understanding betwixt NDLEA and GDNC connected collaboration and partnership.

“The biggest enactment for our effort successful this lawsuit came from President Tinubu, who is committed to ensuring that each Nigerians merit respect and just attraction wherever they are crossed the world. That is what has travel to play successful this case: nary Nigerian is unjustly punished for crimes they cognize thing astir anyplace successful the world…” helium noted.