Senior Special Assistant to the President on Foreign Relations and Diaspora, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, on Friday said that Kudirat Afolabi could not have escaped death as illicit drugs were found on her.
Afolabi was executed in Saudi Arabia on April 1 after the country said it found her guilty of drug trafficking.
Dabiri-Erewa said the explanation became necessary to clarify the circumstances leading to her execution.
Several reports have linked Afolabi’s fate with the activities of alleged syndicates who specialise in planting drugs in the luggage of travelers at Malam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano.
Abike-Dabiri, however, said Afolabi did not belong to the list of seven who were suspected to have fallen victim to the four-man gang of hard drug-planting syndicate.
“There are some people caught in Kano, but those they allegedly gave the drugs to are yet to face trials in Saudi.
“What we can now do is to prevail on the Saudi authority that those people awaiting trials in their country are among the victims of the Kano syndicate.
“If Nigeria can do this, through the National Drugs and Law Enforcement Agency and the Nigerian mission in Saudi Arabia, they might not even be charged to court.
“Ms Afolabi was one of those people on whose bodies drugs were found.
“They were 20 in number. They are the ones on death row, as drugs were found on their bodies, including their private parts.
“In their case, the Saudis do not appear to waste so much time on them. What is on social media that the lady could have been saved was incorrect.
“There was no way we could have done that. She was found with drugs on her body; just like the other 20,” she said.
