The Permanent Secretary, Ministry
of Foreign Affairs, Mustapha Sulaiman, has confirmed that Saudi authorities
have released the Nigerian girl, Zainab Aliyu, and another man, Ibrahim
Abubakar, arrested for alleged drug-related offence.
Zainab Aliyu, a student of
Maitama Sule University, Kano, who travelled for Lesser Hajj in December 2018,
was detained by the Saudi Arabia authorities for allegedly being in possession
of banned substance.
The Permanent Secretary, who
confirmed her release on Tuesday at a news conference, however said that
Abubakar would be released to the mission in the next couple of hours.
“I am pleased to inform you that
in the last few minutes ago the girl and the gentleman have been released.
“I am happy to announce to you
that in the last couple of minutes Zainab is with our mission in Saudi and we
believe that the other gentleman will be released before tomorrow.
“Because by the time they were
able to get his file, it was closing hour and before they got to his location,
where he was being kept, it was already late.’’
Sulaiman said that the release
was as a result of intense diplomatic engagements between the Nigerian
government and Saudi Arabia.
He said that the ministry made
great efforts to establish their innocence.
Suleiman noted that the
government had raised several notes with the Saudi Embassy in Abuja and their
Consulate in Kano over the matter.
“We piled up pressure of
interventions and there has been discussions at various levels between the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Saudi authorities,” he said.
He assured that the ministry used
“all available diplomatic channels to secure her release”.
“In addition to that our ministry
in conjunction with the mission in Saudi has been able to bring to the
attention of Saudi the level of innocence of these people.
“We have engaged in other
diplomatic ways, we have written several note verbal, we have also from here
sent the same note to the Saudi embassy here and the consulate in Kano.
“We have had several
interventions and various discussions between the minister of minister of
foreign affairs and attorney general of the federation on this same issue.
“We have passed documents
relating to the trial of the suspects that were arrested in Kano; we have also
passed same information of the judicial process,” NAN quoted him as saying.
The permanent secretary said that
the news of her release was heartwarming to the Nigerian Government and the
family of Zainab Aliyu.
He said that investigations by
the Nigerian authorities revealed that a drug cartel in Nigeria packaged drugs
in her luggage, which led to her arrest.
He said that the drug culprits
had been arrested and would be prosecuted.
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