The drug cartels at airports

WHEN Zainab Habibu Aliyu, an undergraduate of the Maitama Sule University, Kano, left Nigeria on December 24, 2018 in the company of her mother, Mrs. Maryam Habibu Aliyu, and her sister, Hajara Habibu Aliyu, little did she realise that she was about to make the news headlines for all the wrong reasons. The trio had flown out of the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport (MAKIA) Kano to Saudi Arabia to participate in the Umrah, the lesser hajj which can be performed by Muslims at any time of the year.

But the family’s earnest attempt to fulfill a religious obligation turned into the ultimate nightmare in the wee hours of December 26 when officials of the Saudi Arabian government knocked on the door of their Jeddah hotel room and arrested Zainab on charges of importing Tramadol, a prohibited opiate analgesic, into the Kingdom. According to the Saudi authorities, the banned drug was discovered in a piece of luggage with Zainab’s nametag, hence the early morning pickup. Also arrested at the same time and charged with the same offence of drug trafficking was another Nigerian traveller, Ibrahim Abubakar.

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Plunged into turmoil, the family had to move very quickly, as the crime that Zainab had allegedly committed carries a death sentence in the Islamic country. Over the past few years, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has executed some Nigerians after speedy trials for drug-related offences. The latest round of executions took place in early April when Kudirat Afolabi, a widow and mother of two, paid the supreme price in the holy city of Mecca.

As it happens, vehement protestations of their daughter’s innocence by the Aliyu family, protests by students of Maitama Sule University, coupled with petitions by the Aliyu and Abubakar families to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) forced the latter to carry out an investigation which not only revealed that both Zainab and Abubakar were innocent, but that a cartel operating at the airport had planted the banned drugs into their luggage. Following the NDLEA investigation, seven members of staff of the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport (Idris Umar Shehu, Sanni Suleiman, Nuhu Adamu, Rhoda Adetunji, Udosen Itoro Henry, and Sanni Hamisu) were arrested and arraigned before a Kano Federal High Court. Following the NDLEA’s investigation, the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) ordered its lawyers in Saudi Arabia to join efforts with the Nigerian Commission to secure the release of both Ms. Haliyu and Mr. Abubakar. Last week, their combined pressure paid off as both detainees were released to the Nigerian authorities in Jeddah.

While we jubilate with the families of Zainab and Ibrahim on their long-awaited release, their plight raises serious questions about the security situation, not just at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, but also across the country’s ports of entry in general. Considering how many Nigerians have been dispatched to the great beyond after being similarly charged by the Saudi authorities over the years, and given the circumstances surrounding the arrest and detention of Zainab and Ibrahim, there is a legitimate question as to how many of those tried and executed were in fact innocent. In other words, how long has the cartel which planted the banned drugs in the luggage of Zainab and Ibrahim been in operation, and how many unsuspecting travellers have been sent to their early graves? What does the existence of this and similar cartels operative across other entry ports across the country say about the country’s worsening security situation?

Challenged by a reporter last week on the deepening insecurity in the country, President Buhari offered a casual response on the Inspector General of Police losing weight. This is not good enough. The situation in the country, as indexed by the emboldening of cartels like the one at Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, calls for an urgent intervention. The least President Buhari, the country’s chief security officer, can do is to explain to Nigerians how he plans to tackle the problem.