By Yemisi Fadairo
When I served as Special Assistant, Media, to then Governor of Jigawa state, Senator Saminu Turaki, between 2003 and 2007, I worked closely with the Director of Press, Habibu Aliyu Kila.
Habibu, who has since remained a brother, is the father of Zainab, an undergraduate, who God used President Muhammadu Buhari to save from being executed by the Saudi authorities, for allegedly owning a luggage, tagged in her name and which contained banned drug, Tramadol.
Habibu and I met today, at the 2019 Biennial Covention of the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE), in Lagos, and he narrated how a journey, meant to thank God for a blissful 25 years of marriage, nearly turned tragic.
He believed his sudden decision to opt out of the visit, is divine, as he couldn’t have pursued the case to a logical conclusion, if outside the country.
Zainab’s four months in prison, as should be expected, was traumatic, but efforts to secure her release, which began from the NDLEA office, in Kano, newspaper publications (kicked off by Mrs. Funke Egbemode, president of the NGE), public protests and petition to the Presidency, yielded result.
According to him, Mrs. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, SSA, Foriegn Affairs and Daispora to the president, made his request to see her boss possible, and it was the intervention of the listening and compassionate leader, that started the journey of Zainab out of prison.
He aknowledged that God made a staff of the airport, one of the masterminds of the crime, who specialise in this wicked act, own up.
The student of Maitama Sule University, Kano, had travelled from Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, in company of her mother, Maryam and sister, Hajara, but was later arrested over the allegations. Policemen had invaded their hotel, in the early hours of the day, to whisk her away.
Habibu made me speak to Zainab, who is still in Saudi Arabia, on phone, and I can confirm that like her father (as seen in the photograph), she is in very high spirit and eager to return home.
I jokingly told Habibu to start paying Zainab “royalty”, for making him a celebrity, because most members of the NGE I told who he is (very few knew him as Zainab’s father), after expressing their astonishment over the sad plight of his daughter, insisted on snapping pictures with him. He also received a clapping ovation, when his presence was announced to delegates, at the kick off of the convention.
Zainab and her family, who still have hope in Nigeria, are thanking the president and all those who believe her innocence.
