Nigerian female pilgrims, sending back to Nigeria
508 of them Thursday night. A man was also among the deportees. He was said
to have decided to return home after the Saudis also
denied entry to his wife, according to Alhaji Uba
Mana, spokesman of the Hajj Commission. Close to 1,000 female pilgrims, who landed in Saudi
without male companions, have so far been sent
back to Nigeria, prompting Nigeria’s National Hajj
Commission announce the suspension of flights to
Saudi Arabia. Last night, the Hajj commission described the
development as “”unprecedented and worrisome”. “After consultation with all stakeholders, the
National Hajj Commission of Nigeria has been
compelled to temporarily suspend all Hajj flights for
the next 48 hours,” the commission said in a
statement. The commission said more than 1,000 women were
being detained at the King Abdulazeez International
Airport in Jeddah and Prince Muhammad Ibn Azeez
International Airport in Madina. The suspension of all flights would enable the
commission to “appraise the situation critically”, it
said. An airport official in Jeddah said the women have
been denied entry because “they are not
accompanied by a mahram (the statutory male
companion),” adding that talks were continuing
between Saudi and Nigerian officials. The women began arriving at Jeddah airport on
Sunday. About 171 of them flew home to Nigeria on
Wednesday. Another batch of 102 returned to the
country on Thursday, airport officials said. Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan on
Wednesday set up a five-member team to negotiate
with the Saudi authorities, an official statement said. Nigerian and Saudi officials held a “fruitful meeting”
Thursday in Abuja on the issue, the leader of the
Nigerian team to the talks, Aminu Tambuwal, told
reporters. Tambuwal, speaker of the lower house of
parliament, did not give further details.
No comments:
Post a Comment