3 NIGERIAN PILGRIMS FREED FROM DRUG TRAFFICKING DETENTION IN SAUDI ARABIA
Three Nigerian pilgrims who are arrested in Saudi Arabia on suspicion of drug smuggling have been set free by Saudi authorities.
MARYAM HUSSAIN ABDULLAHI, ABDULLAHI BAHIJJA AMINU, and ABDULHAMID SADDIQ spent four weeks in detention after they were arrested in Jeddah.
The spokesman for the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, FEMI BABAFEMI, confirmed the development in a statement, saying it was based on the intervention of the Federal Government.
FEMI BABAFEMI said the pilgrims were released following weeks of relentless engagements by the NDLEA Chairman and Chief Executive, retired Brigadier General MOHAMED BUBA MARWA, with the leadership of Saudi Arabia’s General Directorate of Narcotics Control.
BABAFEMI said the intervention was done with the full support of President BOLA AHMED TINUBU and the assistance of the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, LATEEF FAGBEMI, as well as the Minister of Foreign Affairs, YUSUF TUGGAR, among others.
Recall that the NDLEA had revealed that a criminal syndicate operating at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport in Kano had tagged bags containing illicit drugs with the names of the three pilgrims without their knowledge, when they departed the airport for Jeddah on August 6, 2026, onboard an Ethiopian Airline flight.
Following complaints lodged by the victims’ families, the NDLEA launched an investigation which led to the arrest fifty-five-year-old suspected drug smuggling kingpin MOHAMMED ALI ABUBAKAR and three other members of the syndicate.
The NDLEA has since filed charges against ABUBAKAR and other gang members, identified as CELESTINA EMMANUEL YAYOCK, ABDULBASIT ADAMU SAGAGI 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” FEMI BABAFEMI stated.
The NDLEA spokesman further revealed that: “following the series of engagements one of the three Nigerians was released from custody on Sunday 14th September and the remaining two on Monday 15th September 2025.”