Zainab Aliyu spent a few months in a Saudi Arabian prison over allegations of trafficking drugs by the Saudi Authorities before being released on April 30, 2019.
She is now an employee of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA). The 25-year-old has completed his Assistant Superintendent of Narcotics 15/2021 training at the NDLEA at Katon Rikkos in Jos State.
The event took place yesterday, November 19, 2021.
NewsWireNGR recalls that Zainab who was at the time of her arrest and detention, a Nigerian student, was held in Saudi Arabia on drug smuggling charges reunited with her family in 2019 after her release.
Zainab Aliyu spent four months in prison following the discovery of illegal drugs in a bag tagged in her name on her arrival in Saudi Arabia.
‘I cried and cried until tears wouldn’t run from my eyes’, she told BBC News Hausa, recalling her time in detention.
The student was later released from detention and the charges were dropped. Nigerian authorities have blamed a local cartel for planting the drugs.
She told the BBC that what happened to her in 2018 changed her life and that she was inspired to become an employee of the anti-drug organization.
“I was lied on for carrying drugs. Now that I have started working with the NDLEA, I see that a real investigation is underway to find out who is guilty,” Zainab said.
Zainab’s dissertation at Yusuf Maitama University spread throughout Nigeria after she was arrested while traveling to Saudi Arabia in 2018 for Umrah.
She spent four months in Jeddah prison where he was sentenced to death before the Nigerian government intervened.
Zainab’s father told the BBC he was grateful to God for the change in his daughters life after joining the NDLEA.
