After more than two decades on death row in a Saudi Arabian prison, the fate of Suleimon Olufemi now rests in the hands of diplomatic negotiators following a massive $570,000 (₦826,443,000) fundraising effort to secure his freedom.

The Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM) released a detailed account on Tuesday, clarifying the status of Olufemi, who was arrested in 2002 during a lesser Hajj (Umrah) pilgrimage. 

Suleimon Olufemi was caught in a mob action in Jeddah that resulted in the death of a Saudi police officer. 

While others arrested in the sweep were eventually deported, Olufemi was sentenced to death in 2005—a conviction human rights groups faulted as lacking merit. They complained that the convict was forced to confess and was not given legal representation.

According to NiDCOM’s Director of Media, Abdur-Rahman Balogun, Saudi Arabia has a policy that allows the son of the victim of such a crime to choose on behalf of the family, whether to execute the convict or ask him for Diyya (Blood Money).

The child of the victim, however, must be at least 18 years old to make the decision.

In Olufemi’s case, the victim’s youngest child reached the age of 18 about three and a half years ago and opted for Diyya of $570,000 rather than execution.

NiDCOM revealed that it played a prominent role in galvanising people to raise the money to save Olufemi. The commission said Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu and Seyi Tinubu, son of President Bola Tinubu, were instrumental in the campaign. The two of them reportedly contributed approximately $150,000. 

The remaining balance was crowdfunded via a GoFundMe campaign led by the Association of Nigerians in Saudi Arabia and the Yaro brothers.

The commission confirmed the full amount was paid into a dedicated account on July 4, 2024. However, despite the payment, Olufemi remains in Al-Shumaisi prison.

While Amnesty International recently urged President Tinubu to “act decisively” to end Olufemi’s “unconscionable injustice,” NiDCOM tongue-lashed the organisation for reacting too late to the issue.

NiDcCOM said that when the matter was hot, and it approached Amnesty International for support to raise the blood money, the organisation failed to show interest.

The commission said the government is already in the final stages of diplomacy, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is currently coordinating with Saudi authorities to finalise the pardon and secure Olufemi’s long-awaited return to Nigeria.

Read Also: British man jailed for 10 years in Saudi Arabia over deleted 2018 tweet

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Nigerian billionaire philanthropist, Alhaji Aminu Alhassan Dantata will be buried in Madina, Saudi Arabia tomorrow, Monday, June 30, 2025, following his demise on Friday in Abu Dhabi.

Mustapha Abdullahi Junaidu, the deceased’s secretary, in a Facebook post, confirmed that the required authorisation to move Dantata’s body from Abu Dhabi to Madina had been obtained.

It was the late billionaire’s wish to be buried in Saudi Arabia.

Junaidu’s post reads, “Praise be to God, praise be to God, praise be to God. Approval has been obtained to transport Aminu Alhassan Dantata from Abu Dhabi to Madina. The funeral prayer will be held tomorrow (Monday) morning, God willing.”

The late business mogul passed away on Friday night, June 27, in an Abu Dhabi hospital following a brief illness.

He was 94 years old.

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A Nigerian pilgrim from Plateau State has died in Makkah, Saudi Arabia, during the ongoing 2025 Hajj pilgrimage.

The female pilgrim reportedly passed away on June 1, 2025, at the King Abdul’aziz Hospital due to complications related to diabetes, as confirmed by attending medical personnel.

In a solemn tribute, officials cited a verse from the Qur’an (4:100): “And whoever leaves his home as an emigrant to Allah and His Messenger and then death overtakes him, his reward has already become incumbent upon Allah.”

The Executive Secretary of the Plateau State Pilgrims Welfare Board expressed deep sorrow over the loss, extending condolences to the government of Plateau State, as well as to the bereaved family, friends, and loved ones.

“May Allah forgive her shortcomings and grant her Aljannatul Firdaws,” he prayed, offering a final farewell to the late pilgrim.

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A British father of four, Ahmed al-Doush, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison by Saudi Arabian authorities over a deleted 2018 tweet from a Twitter/X account that had just 37 followers.

Al-Doush, a senior business analyst at Bank of America, was detained on August 31, 2024, while returning from a family vacation in Saudi Arabia.

He was stopped by security officials at Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport while preparing to fly back to the UK via Turkey.

On May 12, 2025, his wife, Amaher Nour, was informed by a state-appointed lawyer that Ahmed had been convicted, though the specific charges were not disclosed to her.

Amnesty International previously stated that he was accused of spreading false and damaging information via social media, and of having links to an individual deemed a national security threat.

His family believes the charges may stem from a 2018 tweet about Sudan, not Saudi Arabia, which Ahmed had deleted.

They also suspect that his only alleged link to a Saudi critic in exile is through the critic’s son, whom Ahmed knew casually.

At the time of his arrest, Amaher was pregnant and later returned to the UK alone with their children, where Ahmed missed the birth of their fourth child.

“He has no political ties,” Amaher said, expressing disbelief over her husband’s prolonged detention. “It’s not rational in any way.”

Amnesty International says Ahmed has suffered multiple fair trial violations, including interrogations without legal counsel and restricted communication with his family and legal team.

His family had no contact with him for two months following his arrest.

UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy reportedly discussed the case with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan, though no details were made public.

The UK Foreign Office responded to human rights advocates by saying it cannot interfere in another country’s legal proceedings.

Sacha Deshmukh, CEO of Amnesty International UK, condemned the sentence, urging Saudi authorities to immediately release Ahmed if he is being held solely for exercising free speech.

“He must be allowed to return to his family in the UK without delay,” Deshmukh said.

A Foreign Office spokesperson confirmed, “We are supporting a British man who is detained in Saudi Arabia and are in contact with his family and the local authorities.”

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The Federal Government has debunked circulating reports alleging that Saudi Arabia has imposed a visa ban on Nigerians and 12 other nationalities.

In a statement issued by Alkasim Abdulkadir, Special Assistant on Media and Communications Strategy to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, the ministry confirmed that the viral memo listing Nigeria among banned countries is false.

According to Tuggar, Saudi authorities have officially denied issuing any such directive.

He described the document — which also listed Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, India, Pakistan, and several others — as inaccurate and misleading.

The ministry clarified that:

There is no visa or entry ban on Nigeria by Saudi Arabia.

The only restriction in place pertains to the Hajj season.

Between April 29 and June 11, 2025 (01 Thul Quda to 14 Thul Hijjah 1446 AH), individuals on tourist visas are not allowed to enter Makkah or perform the pilgrimage.

Only those with valid Hajj visas can participate during this period.

The ministry urged Nigerians to disregard the fake memo and seek travel information only from official sources to avoid confusion.

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Saudi Arabia has released three Nigerian women who have been in prison custody for alleged drug trafficking.

The acting spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kimiebi Ebienfa, in a statement issued in Abuja on Sunday, January 5, 2025, said the release followed high-level diplomatic engagement between the Nigerian government and Saudi authorities.

The three Nigerians, namely Hadiza Abba, Fatima Malah and Fatima Gamboi, were arrested for alleged possession of a substance suspected to be cocaine while on pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.

According to the statement, they were arrested and prosecuted on 5 March 2024 at Prince Mohammad bin Abdul Azeez International Airport in Madinah, Saudi Arabia, and released after spending 10 months in detention.

“The arrest of the three women was a result of the earlier arrest of two Nigerian nationals who were found in possession of 80 capsules of Cocaine weighing 900.28 gm and 70 capsules of Cocaine weighing 789.5gm, respectively,” the statement read.

“The women were detained by the Saudi authorities on suspicion of being accomplices and abating the trafficking of the banned substance found on the aforementioned arrested Nigerians.

“The Ministry wishes to recall that the trio’s arrest attracted much attention in Saudi Arabia and Nigeria

“Their successful release was achieved after prolonged diplomatic and legal engagements, which culminated in their discharge and acquittal, as well as subsequent handover to the Consulate-General of Nigeria in Jedda.

The ladies were received by Amb. Muazam Nayaya, Consul-General of Nigeria in Jeddah.

They are currently awaiting relevant immigration processes for their return to Nigeria to reunite with their families.

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The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has executed 10 Nigerians and more than 90 other foreigners so far in 2024.

This was disclosed by AFP which has been keeping count.

On Saturday, November 16, 2024, another execut!on took place in the southwestern region of Najran.

The victim was a Yemeni national convicted of smuggling drugs into the Gulf kingdom, according to the official Saudi Press Agency.

According to the tally compiled from state media reports, that brought to 101 the number of foreigners executĕd so far in 2024.

This is almost triple the figures for 2023 and 2022, when Saudi authorities had put to death 34 foreigners each year, according to AFP tallies.

The Berlin-based European-Saudi Organisation for Human Rights (ESOHR) said this year’s execut!ons had already broken a record.

‘This is the largest number of executions of foreigners in one year. Saudi Arabia has never executĕd 100 foreigners in a year,’ said Taha al-Hajji, the group’s legal director.

The oil-rich kingdom executed the third-highest number of prisoners in the world after China and Iran in 2023, according to Amnesty International.

In September, AFP reported that Saudi Arabia had carried out its highest number of execut!ons in more than three decades, surpassing its previous highs of 196 in 2022 and 192 in 1995.

Executions have continued at a rapid clip since then and totalled 274 for the year as of Sunday, according to AFP’s tally.

Foreigners executed this year have included 21 from Pakistan, 20 from Yemen, 14 from Syria, 10 from Nigeria, nine from Egypt, eight from Jordan, and seven from Ethiopia.

There were also three each from Sudan, India and Afghanistan, and one each from Sri Lanka, Eritrea and the Philippines.

Saudi Arabia in 2022 ended a three-year moratorium on the execution of drug offenders, and executions for drug-related crimes have boosted this year’s numbers.

There have been 92 such executions so far this year, 69 of them of foreigners, according to the AFP tally.

Diplomats and activists say that foreign defendants usually face a higher barrier to fair trials, including the right to access court documents.

Foreigners ‘are the most vulnerable group’, said Hajji of the ESOHR.

Not only are they often ‘victims of major drug de@lers’ but also ‘subjected to a series of violations from the moment of their arrest until their execution,’ he said.

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A Saudi father has sent a terrifying death threat to his daughter after she refused to return to Saudi Arabia to marry her cousin, according to reports.

The daughter, who is currently residing in Australia, incurred her father’s wrath after rejecting the family’s arranged marriage plans.

In a chilling text message, the father vowed to “slaughter” his daughter if she did not comply with his demands.

This threat has sparked concerns over the potential for an “honour killing,” a practice common in the Arab world but which has attracted wide condemnation globally.

The daughter reportedly left Saudi Arabia to seek freedom from the arranged marriage, which is considered common in some conservative families.

The father sent his daughter photos of two Saudi women who were found mysteriously de@d in their Sydney home.

The father asked his daughter in a text message if the photos of the de@d girls scared her and threatened her, “I swear to God I will k!ll you, I will bury you and no one will know.”

The bodies of Asra Abdullah Alsehli, 24, and Amaal Abdullah Alsehli, 23, were found in their flat in Canterbury, south-west of the city, in June 2022. The sisters had fled Saudi Arabia in 2015 with only $5,000. Their remains were discovered after a two-month search by police.

Both women had active claims with Home Affairs seeking asylum at the time of their de@ths and it was suggested they were living in fear, having stayed with family in Saudi Arabia.

This father is now threatening his daughter with the same fate unless she does what he says.

The unnamed woman, who was later joined by her mother and three younger sisters in Australia, defied her father’s demands to return to her homeland to marry a cousin.

The father sent his eldest daughter a text message in Arabic with photographs of the dead women.

The message reads: “You thought you wouldn’t get it! Is the image scary?

“It will come true, I swear to God I will k!ll you, I will bury you and no one will know, I will come soon and see you.

“This is your destiny and it will be at my own hands.”

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Death tolls crossed 900 in Saudi Arabia following temperature surges, as friends and family searched for missing hajj pilgrims on Wednesday, June 19, 2024.

Relatives who couldn’t reach their loved ones scoured hospitals and pleaded online for news after temperatures hit 51.8 degrees Celsius (125 Fahrenheit) in Mecca, Islam’s holiest city, on Monday, June 17.

About 1.8 million people from all over the world, many old and infirm, took part in the days-long, mostly outdoor pilgrimage, which fell during the hot Saudi summer this year.

An Arab diplomat told AFP that deaths among Egyptians alone had jumped to “at least 600”, from more than 300 a day earlier, mostly from the unforgiving heat.

That figure brought the total reported dead so far to 922, according to an AFP tally of figures released by various countries.

The diplomat later added that Egyptian officials in Saudi Arabia had received “1,400 reports of missing pilgrims”, including the 600 dead.

Mabrouka bint Salem Shushana of Tunisia, in her early 70s, has been missing since the climax of the pilgrimage on Saturday at Mount Arafat, her husband Mohammed told AFP on Wednesday, June 19.

Because she was unregistered and did not have an official hajj permit, she was unable to access air-conditioned facilities that allow pilgrims to cool down, he said.

“She’s an old lady. She was tired. She was feeling so hot, and she had no place to sleep,” he said. “I looked for her in all the hospitals. Until now I don’t have a clue.”

Facebook and other social media networks have been flooded with pictures of the missing and requests for information.

Those searching for news include family and friends of Ghada Mahmoud Ahmed Dawood, an Egyptian pilgrim unaccounted for since Saturday.

“I received a call from her daughter in Egypt begging me to put any post on Facebook that can help track her or find her,” said one family friend based in Saudi Arabia, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he did not want to anger Saudi authorities.

“The good news is that until now we did not find her on the list of the dead people, which gives us hope she is still alive.”

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The sum of N90 billion has allegedly been released by the federal government of Nigeria to subsidise the 2024 pilgrimage to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

A source at the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) told Daily Trust that without this intervention, each of the intending pilgrims would have been requested to add at least N3.5 million to the initial fare which was pegged at N4.9 million.

The source told the publication:

“The forex crisis has caused a lot of problems. That is why the Hajj Commission has asked intending pilgrims to pay the extra amount of N1.9 million each. The commission actually needed N230 billion to sort out the fare differential caused by the forex crisis.

“The N90 billion support which was provided by the government was announced in the presence of reporters during the inauguration of the board and management of the Hajj Commission which was held at the Office of the Vice Presidency on February 28, 2024. But they (reporters) were asked not to report it. That was why no newspaper carried the report. Or did you see it in any reports? If the intending pilgrims pay ₦1.9 million, it is then it can be balanced.”

He added that NAHCON had also contacted state governors “to subsidise the hajj fare for the intending pilgrims in their respective states. Kano has responded by subsiding it by N500,000 for each pilgrim.

“By the previous calculation, the N90 billion given by the federal government can only subsidise 19,000 intending pilgrims by ₦3.5 million. But by spreading it on 50,000 pilgrims, it reduces it to N1.9 million; meaning that the federal government has subsidised each pilgrim by ₦1.6 million before each intending pilgrim was asked to add the remaining N1.9 million.”

A top official at the Presidency also confirmed that the federal government “actually provided some financial support for the hajj exercise”.

“Of course, the federal government has offered support for the pilgrims because the pilgrims have been lamenting.

“Normally, any support that the government is giving to any faith, whether the Christian faith or the Muslim faith, the government does not like to announce it openly so that it will not appear as if the government is favouring one faith.”

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