Chairman/CEO, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Abike Dabiri-Erewa reportedly back-tracked from her earlier comment that Ethiopian Airlines, as well as Egyptian Airlines, run drug cartels in the respective airports in the countries.
Erewa had expressed her distress over the lack of checking at the respective country airports. According to her whenever there is any suspicious activity or unclaimed baggage has been found in most of the cases the names of the two above-mentioned airlines come up.
These unclaimed items of baggage have been the center of investigation as far as the chairman is concerned.
But on the very next day which is Thursday (May 23) Erewa has gone back on her words and tagged her earlier statement as a figment of the reporter’s imagination.
The statement further said that what the Chairman was trying to say was keeping a closer eye on baggage policy, and the number of unclaimed so those drug cartels are unable to use ignorant third-party as victims. According to today’s statement, the comments have been distorted as per the reporter’s needs.
Though representative of Ethiopian Airline, who was present when the comments were being made said that they will take this advice seriously and will tighten security in terms of baggage further.
Erewa had was present before the Senate Ad-hoc Committee on the matter of Zainab Habibu Aliyu, who was arrested by Saudi Arabian Police for a drug-related offense. The Senate public hearing has been moved towards investigating the circumstances regarding the framing and consequential arrest of Zainab Aliyu in Saudi Arabia over allegation of carrying tramadol in her baggage.
