By Our Correspondents

Copyright independent

Saudi Arabian authorities have released three Nigerian pilgrims who were detained in Jeddah, since last month following their arrest over alleged drug traffick-ing.

The three Nigerians who were freed from detention after four weeks in custody include: Mrs. Maryam Hussain Abdullahi, Mrs. Abdullahi Bahijja Aminu, and Mr. Abdulhamid Saddieq.

Their freedom came follow-ing weeks of relentless engage-ments by the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Brig Gen Mohamed Buba Marwa (rtd), with the lead-ership of the General Directorate of Narcotics Control (GDNC) in Saudi Arabia with the full sup-port of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the assistance of the Attorney General of the Feder-ation and Minister of Justice, Prince Lateef Fagbemi (SAN); the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Amb. Yusuf Tuggar, and the Min-ister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Mr. Festus Keya-mo (SAN), as well as the National Security Adviser, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu.

A syndicate operating at the Mallam Aminu Kano Interna-tional Airport (MAKIA), Kano, had tagged bags containing il-licit drugs with the names of the three unsuspecting Nigerians who travelled on an Ethiopian Airline flight ET940 which de-parted Kano on August 6, 2025, to Jeddah on lesser hajj. They were later arrested in Saudi for alleged drug trafficking.

Following complaints to the NDLEA boss by families of the three victims over the detention of their family members in Sau-di Arabia after the completion of their lesser hajj on an allegation of trafficking in illicit substances, an investigation was launched to unravel what happened.

The probe led to the arrest of 55-year-old drug kingpin, Moham-med Ali Abubakar, alias Bello Karama, and three other mem-bers of the syndicate including the airline officials behind the shipment of the illicit substances for which the three innocent pil-grims were arrested and detained in Jeddah.

Charges had since been filed against Mohammed Ali Abuba-kar and other members of the syndicate: Celestina Emmanuel Yayock; Abdulbasit Adamu Saga-gi and Jazuli Kabir.

Armed with the outcome of NDLEA investigation and charges filed against members of the syndicate as well as other evidences to prove the innocence of the three Nigerian pilgrims, Marwa engaged with his Saudi counterpart at multiple levels and different locations including Saudi Arabia in compliance with President Tinubu’s agenda that no Nigerian suffers unjustly in a foreign land.

Following the series of en-gagements, one of the three Nige-rians was released from custody on Sunday, September 14, and the remaining two on Monday, Sep-tember 15, 2025.

Expressing happiness over the development, Marwa com-mended his counterpart at the Saudi GDNC for upholding the essence of the Memorandum of Understanding between NDLEA and GDNC on collaboration and partnership.

“The biggest support of our effort on this case came from Pres-ident Tinubu who is committed to ensuring that every Nigerian gets their deserved respect and fair treatment wherever they are across the world. And that is what has come to play in this case, that no Nigerian is unjustly punished for crimes they know nothing about anywhere in the world.

“We equally appreciate the as-sistance provided by the Hon. At-torney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Prince Lateef Fagbemi (SAN); the Hon. Minister of Foreign Affairs, Amb. Yusuf Tuggar, and the Hon. Min-ister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Mr. Festus Keyamo (SAN), as well as the National Security Adviser, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, who were with us all the way on the matter.”