Mrs Abdullahi had left Nigeria on August 6 alongside her husband, Abdullahi Baffa, to perform a lesser Hajj.<\/p>\n
She was detained in Makkah after the police linked a strange \u201cGhana must go\u201d sack to her name.<\/p>\n
Speaking to Daily Nigerian, her husband\u00a0accused the airline of adding the strange bag to his wife\u2019s luggage without her consent.<\/p>\n
Baffa said he alongside his wife had travelled with only one bag each, which were duly cleared before they departed from Malam Aminu Kano International Airport, adding that he was shocked that upon arrival in Jiddah, they could not find their luggage.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur flight was connected through Addis Ababa, and we arrived at Jiddah on 7th August. We scaled all the screening processes without any hassle.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cBut when we arrived, our luggage was missing, and I reported it to the luggage claim desk.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cThey gave us a complaint form to fill, and an acknowledged copy was returned to us. They also told us to expect feedback within 48 hours.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cBut I protested, explaining to them that we had no spare clothes, but they insisted that was the procedure<\/em>,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Baffa said\u00a0they proceeded to Madinah and bought new clothes and other essentials, but after eight days\u00a0he received a call that one of the bags was ready for collection in Jeddah, but he declined and requested it be sent back to Nigeria.<\/p>\n However, things took a dramatic turn when they returned to Madinah to catch their return flight to Nigeria on Thursday via the same airline.<\/p>\n He said,\u00a0\u201cIt was at that point that I was informed that my wife has been restricted, and she can\u2019t travel with me.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cWhen we arrived for departure, Ethiopian Airlines cleared my passport but said my wife had been blocked from travelling.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cWhen I enquired about the reason, the immigration officers referred us to the Rihab Centre in Makkah.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cAnd because Thursdays are not working days in the Kingdom, we couldn\u2019t go. So I approached the Nigerian Consulate in Madinah and reported the incident.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cThe head of the consulate made contacts to find out; he was briefed on the situation. He was very nice to us and even attached a staff member of the consulate to accompany us.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cSo when we arrived at the investigation office in Makkah on Sunday, we were told in the presence of the consulate staff that my wife\u2019s name was linked to a bag containing suspicious items<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n He said security operatives compared her luggage tags with the impounded bag but found no match, adding that \u201cthe bag was tagged with her name, and the police attached her pictures to the bag \u2013 but luckily the number on the bag was different from the one issued to us by the airline. But they insisted on detaining pending further investigations.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cWhen I went to visit her in the cell, she told me the operatives showed her a Ghana-must-go sack containing wrapped items.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cBut the items were totally strange to us. Because she had no connection whatsoever to the bag and its content. My wife is completely innocent<\/em>,\u201d Baffa said.<\/p>\n \u201cI sent someone who has been in contact with the airline, and they have appealed to him not to escalate the matter.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cAccording to him, the airline told him that the contents of the bag were not incriminating and the issue will be resolved soon.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cBut if that claim is true, why is my wife in detention, and why would they engage in such unholy conduct? This is a pure act of criminality, and we will not take it lightly,<\/em>\u201d he added.<\/p>\n While appealing to the Nigerian government to urgently intervene and secure the release of his wife, Baffa also urged the management of the Aminu Kano International Airport to release video footage of their arrivals and departures from the airport.<\/p>\n When contacted, a source working for Ethiopian Airline said an investigation has been launched on the matter.<\/p>\n \u201cThe issue will be investigated. But it cannot be instant because there are many stations involved<\/em>,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Prodded further, the source said, \u201cI don\u2019t have any information except that they will trace and investigate, which is the normal procedure.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Also, the Nigerian Consul General in Jiddah, Muazam Nayaya, he said the incident has been reported to the consulate.<\/p>\n \u201cAbout the incident, we have received a report on this matter, and we have commenced an investigation and will soon send a report to Headquarters<\/em>\u201d, Mr Nayaya said.<\/p>\n Recall that in\u00a0December 2018, Zainab Aliyu Kila, then a student of Yusuf Maitama Sule University, Kano, was detained in Saudi Arabia for alleged drug trafficking, following the discovery of illicit drugs in a bag bearing her name tag.<\/p>\n Investigations revealed that a criminal gang, in concert with airport officials, added the contentious bag to her name without her knowledge.<\/p>\n She was released in April 2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Saudi Arabian authorities have arrested and detained a Kano woman, Maryam Hussaini-Abdullahi, after a bag containing Marijuana was allegedly mismatched with her luggage by Ethiopian Airlines. Mrs Abdullahi had left Nigeria on August 6...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8342,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8341"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8341\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8343,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8341\/revisions\/8343"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}