Hajia Maryam Habib Aliyu, mother of Zainab, the 22-year-old student of Maitama Sule University, Kano, who was saved from execution by the federal government after she was wrongly accused of trafficking in illicit drug, Tramadol, in Saudi Arabia, has given the lowdown of the incident.
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Hajia Aliyu, who witnessed the sad event first-hand alongside her other daughter, Hajara, gave Daily Trust an eyewitness account in an interview she granted the paper after Zainab was released.
Extract from the interview and report reproduced below:
According to Zainab’s mother, they were conveyed from Jeddah to Madinah in buses and they arrived around 11:30am and went straight to the hotel where their agent booked for them.
“But we did not stay in that particular hotel. We only went there to inform our agents that we are not staying there and the hotel we intended to stay in case they may want to look for us,” Hajiya Maryam told Daily Trust.
She said after checking into their hotel, they went straight to the Prophet’s mosque and observed Magrib prayer.
“We wanted to wait until after Isha prayer, but Zainab and Hajara insisted that we should return to our hotel to have some rest. So we left the mosque to the hotel.
“On our return to the hotel, we ate our dinner and stayed for some minutes before I retired to bed and left Zainab and Hajara watching TV in the sitting room. After sometime, they also joined me in the bedroom. However, the next thing I heard was someone at the door. And when I woke up and opened the door, I saw some Arabs and two black men standing.
“They asked us some few questions related to our luggage. They asked whether we have left some luggage at the Jeddah airport and I told them we have not left any luggage. I showed all our luggage to them. They demanded to search our luggage and we allowed them because we believed we did not carry anything incriminating in our luggage.
“After searching our luggage, they also ransacked the house thinking that they get something incriminating but Alhamdulillah they did not find anything of such nature. After the search, they said they were going with Zainab for questioning because the bag they found with drugs was bearing her name.
“At the first instance, I resisted but the two black men who were fluent in Hausa language convinced me that nothing will happen to her and that the Arab people are officials of Saudi Arabian drug agency. I allowed them to go with her believing they will return her to me after questioning.”
However, since the security agents went with Zainab, the family did not hear anything from her until the next day after Maryam called the number of one of the black men that accompanied the Arabs. The man assured her that nothing bad would happen to her and promised to find out from the security agents.
“After some minutes, he called back and informed me that the security men could not question Zainab the day she was taken. He said they will allow her to pick her calls and that I should call her line. I obliged and she answered immediately, she confirmed to me that they were on their way to Jeddah.
“We did not hear from Zainab until the next day the December 27, when a lady called my line and told me that Zainab wanted to speak with me but I should buy her 30 Saudi riyals worth of credit with which I will speak with my daughter. That was how Zainab told me that she was in the prison over alleged drug trafficking,” the mother told Daily Trust.
She said Zainab’s father also immediately reported the matter to the National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Federal Airport Authority of Nigerian, Nigerian Embassy and other relevant authorities. “So, to cut it short, this is how my daughter Zainab was arrested by the Saudi Arabian authorities over alleged drug trafficking. I thank Allah who spared my life to witness this historic day in my life.
