… seeks FG’s intervention over US visa revocation
By Ikechukwu Nnochiri
ABUJA– A Nigerian data analyst, Mr. Gideon Ezeh, has recounted how a false suspicion that he was carrying cocaine led him to spend over six weeks at a detention center in Qatar.
Speaking with journalists in Abuja on Friday, Ezeh recalled his ordeal on May 7, 2025, when he was arrested after a routine security check at Hamad International Airport in Doha en route to the United States.
According to him: “While passing through airport security, an official claimed that a mannequin head in my carry-on luggage required additional scrutiny.
“I obliged and they pulled the mannequin head apart to check the contents. On opening it up, they found Styrofoam and white stones inside, which they interrogated me about their source.
“I informed them that I had bought the mannequin from a supermarket in Nigeria, and those had to be packaging materials that were embedded by the manufacturers.
“Multiple comprehensive tests were conducted by various Qatari security, customs, and police officials. These included chemical swabs, machine analysis, and tongue-tasting of the stones, as well as two complete searches of my checked luggage and a full strip-search.
“Every single test result was negative for narcotics, confirming the substance was merely stones used for weight/balance. Following the negative narcotics field tests, these stones were also examined and confirmed by an airport jeweler to be valueless and chemically inactive.
“Despite the clear evidence of innocence, Qatari security personnel escalated the situation. I was detained, my passport and phone seized, and my checked luggage forcibly removed from the aircraft and searched twice.
“Nothing illegal was found. This event also brings to mind, a similar forceful and demeaning searching of Australian women in Hamad International Airport, just five years ago- a case for which justice is still being sought. Also, several Nigerians has gone through similar experiences.
“I was handcuffed behind my back, driven in a black vehicle, and taken to a detention facility called Duhaill, under the pretext of a ‘final test’ that will take just 2 hrs.
“At the detention center, I was subjected to a degrading strip search. I was stripped completely naked, ordered to jump, squat, and cough, while a device passed around my genitals and anus.
“Again, nothing incriminating was found on me. I was detained and compelled to sign a report written entirely in Arabic, which falsely declared the harmless stones were “cocaine stones.
“That was how I spent 6 weeks in detention. I later learned through the Nigerian embassy in Qatar, they had sent the stones for forensic lab analyses during my detention.
“The analyses surprisingly took six weeks, after which the results came out, still showing the stones were benign and non-narcotics.
“I was ultimately released from custody without any charge or conviction on June 19th, 2025, confirming the complete lack of evidence or legal basis for the original accusation and detention.”
Ezeh, who spoke to newsmen alongside his lawyer, Mr. Inibehe Effiong, lamented that it was after his release that he found out that his US visa was revoked on May 12, 2025, following his wrongful arrest.
“Since I had obtained my U.S. visa as my wife’s dependent, her student visa also got revoked in relation to the case.
“This even came at a time when she was preparing for her Ph.D. candidacy exam, adding more fuel to the fire already ravaging our lives.”
He said the visa revocation was based on a false report that he was found in possession of cocaine.
His lawyer, Effiong, disclosed that several attempts were made—personally and through the Nigerian embassy in Qatar—to obtain case dismissal documents and a copy of the forensic lab results, as key materials that would help appeal the visa revocation.
“Though a case dismissal document was eventually issued, they ultimately refused to release the lab report. Several law firms and human rights organizations in Doha were enlisted to help press for the release of the lab report, but all attempts were futile.
“From the legal angle, I was informed that the case ended at the investigative stage, since the lab results yielded no narcotics/illegal content.
“As such, no charges were filed and case documents were not submitted to a court; they remained in the possession of the Qatar Public Prosecution Department,” he stated.
Ezeh urged the federal government to do more to tackle the undue profiling and mistreatment of Nigerian citizens outside the country.
“Apart from everything I suffered, my wife’s education in the US is being threatened because this issue remains unresolved. She has put in 4 years into a PhD program, and in addition to all Qatar has taken away from me, they also want to ruin her academic pursuit.
“Our demand is for Qatar air ways to retract their false claim that has damage my reputation. Compensation for the immense damage this has caused us, some we cannot recover from,” he added.
The post How a false drug allegation landed me in detention in Qatar — Data analyst Ezeh appeared first on Vanguard News.
