Zainab Aliyu: FG indicts Egypt, Ethiopian airlines of running drugs cartel

Tunde Opalana, Abuja

Following the recent rescue of a Nigerian teenager, Zainab Aliyu, from execution for drug offences in Saudi Arabia, the Federal Government has fingered two foreign airlines, Egypt airline and Ethiopian airlines of running drug cartel in the country.

The two airlines were accused of neck deep involvement in drug business network across airports in Nigeria.

The chairman, Nigeria Diaspora Commission (NDC), Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, made the disclosure on Wednesday at the National Assembly complex, Abuja, when she appeared before the Senate Ad-hoc Committee set up to look into the circumstances leading to the arrest of Zainab Aliyu in Saudi Arabia in December last year.

Briefing the Committee, Dabiri-Erewa said: “We have other foreign and local Airlines operating at our Airports, but Egyptian and Ethiopian Airlines have drug cartels operating at our International Airports.

They operate alongside local collaborators. It is not Air Peace, not Arik Air but Egyptian and Ethiopian Airlines”.

When asked by the Chairman of the Committee, Senator Kabiru Gaya, about the condition of the scanners, the Airport Chief of Security of the Federal Airport Authority (FAAN), Mr. El-Yakub Usman Lamir, revealed that scanners at the Aminu Kano International Airport were not configured to detect drugs.

He said that there were 15 security agents involved in checking luggages at the point of entry and exit but that they had been reduced in number due to public complaints.

Representative of the Chairman of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Mr. Mustapha Abdallah, also disclosed that their German trained sniffer dogs were few in number.

“Throughout the federation, NDLEA only has 14 sniffer dogs stationed in Lagos and we don’t even have one to detect drugs at the Aminu Kano International Airport at all”, NDLEA maintained.

In his remarks, Chairman of the Ad hoc Committee, Senator Gaya, charged the officials of NDLEA to increase the number of sniffer dogs in all the international Airports across the country.

He also directed the officials of Federal Airport Authority (FAAN) to upgrade such sensitive device as the Scanner in the Airports to ensure that the country was rid of hard drugs.

Gaya, however, commended Zainab’s father for providing the information on the arrest of his daughter by Saudi Arabia law enforcement agencies to the Social Media from where the Federal Government got wind of the arrest.

He assured that as soon as the committee concluded its investigation, it would submit its report to the Senate.