A Federal Government delegation, headed by the Speaker,
House of Representatives, Hon. Aminu Tambuwal, is expected to leave Nigeria
Friday for Saudi Arabia to discuss with that country’s authorities over the
fate of Nigerian female intending pilgrims who are being detained in Madinah.
About 1,000 would-be female pilgrims
were detained on arrival in Madinah between Monday and Tuesday for not being
accompanied by male chaperons, as provided for under Saudi Arabia’s immigration
law that women under 40 years must be accompanied by male chaperons to be
allowed to perform the pilgrimage.
As a result of the development, the
National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) has suspended all flights to
Jeddah and Madinah until a resolution is reached on what has snowballed into a
diplomatic row between both countries.
NAHCON has also dismissed the reason
given by Saudi Arabia for its action, saying that it breached the understanding
between the two countries that Nigeria’s female contingent would be exempted
from the law so long as they are accompanied by NAHCON officials.
At least, 159 of them from Oyo,
Katsina and Taraba States were deported on Wednesday.
Another batch of 512 female pilgrims
arrived at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport (MAKIA), Kano, Thursday
from Saudi Arabia.
The female pilgrims who are from
Kano, Katsina, Jigawa and Zamfara States, arrived in Kano aboard a Meridian Air
aircraft that landed at about 8.50pm.
THISDAY checks revealed Thursday that
plans have been concluded for the five-man Federal Government delegation to
leave for Saudi Arabia to broker a truce in the crisis.
President Goodluck Jonathan had
through the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator Anyim
Pius Anyim, on Wednesday, raised the delegation whose other members are:
Minister of State II for Foreign Affairs, Dr. Nuruddeen Mohammed; Ambassador
Shehu Galadanchi; Sheikh Sherif Saleh; and the NAHCON Chairman, Alhaji
Muhammad M. Bello.
As part of efforts to resolve the
crisis, Tambuwal Thursday met with the Saudi Arabian Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr.
Khalid Abdrabuh, who reiterated his assurance that the controversy would be
resolved shortly.
The duo met behind closed doors to
deliberate on the way out of the pilgrimage standoff.
Abdrabuh explained that the issue of
detention of female pilgrims who failed to meet entry requirements was not
restricted to Nigeria, as some pilgrims from other countries had also been
subjected to the same treatment on arrival at the Holy Land.
Just like he had told Vice-President
Sambo during a meeting on Wednesday at the State House, the ambassador said
officials of the Saudi Ministry of Hajj were already holding talks with a
delegation of the Nigerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Mecca on the issue.
Sambo, during the Wednesday meeting,
had given Saudi Arabia a 24-hour ultimatum to resolve the issue.
Tambuwal, who spoke to reporters at
the end of the meeting, also said the Nigerian mission in Riyadh has been
meeting with the Saudi authorities to resolve the situation.
But NAHCON has dismissed the excuses
tendered by Saudi authorities for the deportation of Nigerian female pilgrims
from the King Abdul-Aziz Airport in Jeddah.
A man, who declined to disclose his
identity, was deported alongside his wife by Saudi authorities after they had
insisted on deporting his wife for not having a male chaperon.
The commission said over 16 flights
carrying Nigerians had already landed in Saudi Arabia with all its passengers,
including unescorted women, allowed into Saudi Arabia, before the authorities
suddenly decided to implement their policy of not allowing unaccompanied women
into the country.
However, the Head of Media of the
commission, Mallam Uba Mana, Thursday revealed that 509 female pilgrims are on
their way back to Nigeria from Saudi Arabia after being stopped from proceeding
with their pilgrimage.
He said that Saudi immigration
officials at King Abdulaziz Airport in Jeddah refused the women entry, saying
they were not travelling with their husbands or male relatives. Mana said some
did travel with their husbands and that a lone male passenger was on the
returning flight after refusing to be separated from his wife.
Mana told THISDAY Thursday that local
officials of the commission have always stood as guarantors of female pilgrims
where they are not accompanied by their husbands or male relations.
He said: “All through history, we
have never had this kind of case or issue. All of a sudden, this happened, and
by deporting a man alongside his wife, they have shown that their excuses are
incorrect.
“What they said is that every woman
has to be matched with either her husband or a male blood relation, but we have
an instance whereby a woman who was travelling with her husband was not allowed
to perform the pilgrimage, and in anger, the husband decided not to perform the
pilgrimage also and came back home.”
Mana, who expressed hope that the
matter would be resolved amicably, said the deported pilgrims would be allowed
to perform the pilgrimage when the crisis is settled.
“Financially, they would lose
nothing, if the issue is resolved, they would go back as long as their
particulars are intact at no cost to them,” he said.
Mana’s
assurances notwithstanding, the commission yesterday suspended all flights to
the Middle-eastern country for the next 48 hours, pending the resolution of the
crisis. This was announced in a statement Thursday, signed by Abdullahi Mukhtar
Muhammad.
According to the statement, the hajj commission said it has been “compelled to temporarily suspend all hajj flights for the next 48 hours, following the unprecedented and worrisome development of detaining over 1,000 female pilgrims from Nigeria at the King Abdulazeez International Airport, Jeddah and Prince Muhammad Ibn azeez International Airport, Madinah”.
According to the statement, the hajj commission said it has been “compelled to temporarily suspend all hajj flights for the next 48 hours, following the unprecedented and worrisome development of detaining over 1,000 female pilgrims from Nigeria at the King Abdulazeez International Airport, Jeddah and Prince Muhammad Ibn azeez International Airport, Madinah”.
The commission added that it was
taking this step after wide consultation with all stakeholders. “This is to enable
the commission to appraise the situation critically with the view to
surmounting all the challenges being faced,” the statement added.
The commission urged “all intending
pilgrims to remain calm as all hands are on deck to resolve the issue and hajj flights
will resume once the matter is resolved.”
It
added that “all pilgrims that Nigerian carriers appointed for the 2012 Hajj
airlift have sufficient capacity to airlift the remaining 60,000 pilgrims well
ahead of the closure of Jeddah airport on October 20.”
Similarly, the Niger State Pilgrims Welfare Commission has suspended its inaugural transportation of pilgrims to the country for this year’s pilgrimage.
Similarly, the Niger State Pilgrims Welfare Commission has suspended its inaugural transportation of pilgrims to the country for this year’s pilgrimage.
According to the spokesman of the
commission, Alhaji Sani Awwal, the suspension complies with NAHCON directive.
“We aborted our planned inaugural
flight to Saudi Arabia. We had finished the screening of the 500 intending
pilgrims from Mashegu, Paikoro and Mariga Local Government Areas, including
medical officials and the delegation commission, when the message of the
suspension reached us, we will comply with it.
“In fact, the pilgrims were already
at the Minna International Airport after the completion of their screening at
the Hajj camp, while the carrier, MAX Airline, had stationed its plane on the
tarmac waiting, when the suspension came into effect," he said.
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