Why 23 Nigerians Are On Death Row In Saudi Arabia (Full Details)
No fewer than 23 Nigerians are on death row in Saudi Arabia due to drug-related offenses, Naijaparry has learned.
The suspects were said to have concealed narcotic substance in their rectum, an act that contravenes Saudi Arabia’s narcotic and psychotropic substances rules.
Saudi government on Saturday said in a statement that the suspects were arrested between 2016 and 2017 at King Abdul-Aziz International Airport, Jeddah, and Prince Muhammad Bin Abdu-Aziz International Airport, Madinah.
The offence, which is punishable by death, is the latest after Saudi authorities executed Kudirat Afolabi for drug trafficking and Saheed Sobade, another Nigerian, reportedly nabbed with 1,183 grams of cocaine in Jeddah.
Nigerian govt warns citizens Against taking drugs to Saudi Arabia
The Nigerian government had, in July,
warned intending Muslim pilgrims against to resist any temptation to take hard drugs to Saudi Arabia.
Chairman of Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), Abike Dabiri-Erewa, gave the warning during the 2019 Hajj exercise.
The presidential aide reminded the pilgrims that taking hard drugs attracted death penalty in the Asian country.
Dabiri-Erewa, in a statement by NIDCOM Head of Media, Abdur-Rahman Balogun, said despite repeated warnings and workshops for intending pilgrims, it was disheartening that some Nigerians still ran foul of Saudi Arabia law.
She recalled that some Nigerians caught with hard drugs in the last few years were still on death row in the country, pleading with pilgrims to shun the shameful act.
Detained Nigerian Returns Home After Four Months In Saudi Arabia.
In May, a female Nigerian student Zainab Aliyu, who was detained for alleged drug trafficking by the Saudi Arabian authorities, arrived the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano, after spending four months in detention.
This news medium had reported then that Zainab arrived alongside another Nigerian, Ibrahim Abubakar, who was also detained for a similar case. They were freed following the intervention of the Federal Government.
Zainab, a 22-year-old student of the Maitama Sule University in Kano, had travelled to Saudi for lesser hajj alongside her mother and sister.
She was arrested by the Saudi police over allegations that the bag bearing her name tag contained tramadol.
But they were released to the Nigerian mission in Saudi Arabia after the President Muhammadu Buhari administration established their innocence.
NDLEA charged to beef up security at Nigeria’s airports
A Senior Programme Officer with the Centre for Information Technology and Development, Isah Garba, had called on the operatives of the National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) to beef up security at the nation’s airports in order to check activities of drug pushers.
Addressing newsmen in Kano in May, Garba said Zainab Aliyu’s experience had shown that the NDLEA had a lot to do in ensuring that drug barons and traffickers were beaten to their game at airports across the country.