By A Nigerian family is appealing for public and diplomatic help after a woman travelling from Lagos to Doha, Qatar, for a new job went missing following her arrival, with more than 72 hours having passed without contact as of the time of this report.
What the Family Says Happened
According to her brother, Jonathan Jibo, who has been documenting the case on X, his sister, Ms. Saratu Jibo Yusuf, boarded a Qatar Airways flight from Lagos to Doha on Tuesday. The two last communicated while she was still airborne, connecting briefly via the plane’s WiFi shortly before landing. A contact who had arranged to meet her at the airport in Doha, a long-standing family friend who had helped organise her relocation, was waiting at the terminal but never saw her arrive.
When the contact raised the alarm with airline staff, he was told she had already collected her luggage and left the terminal. Jibo said this detail has deepened the family’s confusion, since his sister, 37, is an experienced traveller who spent close to 12 years working at a Lagos airport and would not ordinarily be expected to lose her way or fail to check in with waiting family. He said she had paid for her own accommodation and had every part of the trip arranged months in advance and was due to start work in Doha shortly after arrival. Since her arrival, her phone has remained unreachable, and she has shown no activity online.
Jibo said he asked the family’s agent in Doha to file a formal report with local authorities so that CCTV footage from the airport could be reviewed to establish where she was last seen and identify anyone who may have been with her.
Airline and Aviation Contact Respond
Michael Achimugu, the Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection at Nigeria’s Civil Aviation Authority, said he intervened after the case went viral online, despite the matter falling outside his direct purview. Achimugu said he had confirmed through the airline that CCTV footage shows the woman arriving safely, collecting her bags and exiting the terminal.
He explained that every Qatar visa booking must be tied to a specific hotel reservation and that investigators would next attempt to confirm whether she had checked in at her booked hotel and whether she used the arranged hotel pickup vehicle, noting that in some cases travellers arrive at a hotel and then leave quietly on their own. He said that the step in the process was moving slowly partly because of a public holiday period in Qatar, but that confirmation was expected within a day.
Achimugu said he had raised the family’s fears about possible human trafficking or forced labour directly with the airline, and that officials indicated the situation would become easier to assess once her hotel check-in status was confirmed. He added that if she is found not to have reached the hotel, a search effort would follow, noting that tracking someone’s movements becomes considerably easier once they are confirmed to be in Doha. He urged the family to remain calm in the meantime.
Screenshots shared by Jibo also show a customer service exchange with Qatar Airways, in which the airline acknowledged the family’s concern and said it was in contact with its own team to gather any information that might help clarify the situation, promising to share updates as they became available.
Case Escalated, Awaiting Response
Jibo said the viral post prompted a Doha-based agent to forward the matter to a Nigerian government contact in the city, which was then passed on to the Nigerian Embassy in Doha. As of the family’s most recent update, they had not yet received a direct response from the embassy and said they remained anxious, having gone more than 72 hours without hearing from her.
Status
As of this report, the woman’s whereabouts have not been publicly confirmed, and the claims described here rest on her brother’s account and the statements of the aviation contact and airline as relayed by him. None of the details have been independently verified by this publication, and the case remains active. AfrikTimes will provide updates as further information becomes available.
If you have information that could help locate her, the family has asked that this appeal be shared as widely as possible.
