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Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
The wife of the President broke her fast this evening with freed victim of Saudi Arabia drugs trafficking cartel, Zainab Aliyu and her family.
This is even as she has called on the authorities to bring the perpetrators of the crime to book.
The Nigerian student who was held in Saudi Arabia on drug smuggling charges had recently been reunited with her family.
Aliyu spent four months in prison following the discovery of illegal drugs in a bag tagged in her name on her arrival in Saudi Arabia.
Zainab who was led by the Chairman/CEO, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), Abike Dabiri-Erewa, was accompanied by her parents, Habib and Maryam Aliyu, and sister, Hajara.
She was accused of entering Saudi Arabia with an illegal dosage of Tramadol, but it has since been discovered she was a victim of a cartel at the airport in Kano that specialises in sneaking hard drugs in travelers’ bags.
A Federal High Court, sitting in Kano State, had in April granted bail to the six suspects arraigned before it for exporting Tramadol to Saudi Arabia in a luggage using the name tag of Zainab Aliyu, a 22-year-old student of Maitama Sule University, Kano.
A 7-man syndicate, who were staff members of the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano were arrested by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, following a petition filed by Zainab’s father, Habibu, a director at the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, FRCN.
The accused, namely Idris Umar Shehu (alias Umar Sanda), Sanni Suleiman, Nuhu Adamu, Rhoda Adetunji, Udosen Itoro Henry and Sanni Hamisu were arraigned on three-count charges.
One of the accused, Shehu, is believed to be currently in Saudi Arabia observing lesser Hajj.
