Abdullahi Suleiman Sarah was taken into custody when he arrived with his mother in Jeddah for Umrah last September, according to press reports in Nigeria.

According to his widowed mother, the nightmare started when the two of them arrived at Jeddah’s King Abdul Aziz International Airport on Sept 7, 2010.

At immigration, they were instructed by an immigration officer to step aside. A few minutes later policemen arrived, arrested Abdullahi and led him away in handcuffs. He was suspected of having duped a Saudi businessman in an airline business deal in 2007.

“I tried to prove to the immigration officer that my son was a victim of mistaken identity, but they ignored me. Instead, I was shouted at and ordered to leave,” Hajiya Saratu Ahman, Abdullahi's mother, reportedly said.

“In 2007, my son was just a 19-year-old undergraduate and most unlikely to have been involved in any such business. Besides, there was no evidence that he visited Saudi Arabia in 2007,” she added.

Nine days later, a court freed Abdullahi after his lawyer showed that there had been an identity mixup and that the real person being sought was Abdoulaye Diori Hamani, son of Niger’s first president and owner of Air Niamey, an airline based in the country.

Abdullahi was discharged and the judge ordered that his passport be returned and the travel ban on him lifted.

Despite that, Abdullahi was still not allowed to leave the Kingdom. It was another six weeks before the ban was supposedly lifted. Only in December did the Ministry of Justice inform the police in Jeddah that he had been acquitted.

However, when mother and son tried to leave on Jan. 28, their third attempt, the computer at the airport still had Abdullahi 's name listed as a suspect in a fraud case.

“We are not allowed to go home despite the fact Abdullahi was discharged and acquitted after it was established he was wrongly arrested and charged in the first place,” Ahman added.

According to Nigerian acquaintances of the victim contacted by Arab News, Abdullahi and his mother are still unable to leave.

Arab News also contacted the Nigerian Consulate in Jeddah, but it would only confirm that it was aware of the case.