Number Of Nigerian Female Pilgrims in Detention In Saudi Arabia Increase To 1000

About 1000 female Nigerian pilgrims are still detained by Saudi authorities even as the two countries are still involved in “high level diplomatic talks” to resolve the impasse, Greenwich News learnt last night.


However, high level sources hinted last night that the federal government is trying to sort out the issue through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, even as the House of Representatives resolved yesterday to probe the issue.


“A letter signed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs has already been delivered to the Saudi authorities over the issue. We don’t know whether they will accept it,” the source who is involved with the issue told reporters last night.

Investigations revealed that apart from the initial 400 pilgrims who arrived at the holy land on board flight 17 last Sunday, 600 additional female pilgrims on flights 18, 19, 20, 21 and 22, from Katsina, Kano and Zamfara states were also detained at the airport on arrival.

The female pilgrims were detained on arrival when they couldn’t produce individual maharram, that is, the approved male companion accompanying them on the trip, usually a husband, father or brother, demanded by the Saudis.

But the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON)’s Commissioner of Operations, Alhaji Muhammad Abdullahi Mukhtar told our reporter yesterday that the it is not true that the pilgrims couldn’t produce muharram. He said the State Muslim Pilgrims Welfare Boards (SMPWB) “qualify and identify as muharram of female pilgrims. And that has been the case for so many decades.”

He said that the situation is so confusing that “the Saudis randomly select flights to screen and detain.”

“All the 10 flights that landed in Medina were allowed into the country without any incidence. Also, flights 23, 24 and 25 were not touched at all,” he said.

Mukhtar wondered why only Nigerian pilgrims were selected for this treatment by the Saudi authorities. “In fact, there is no such issue in the memorandum of understanding signed between Nigeria and Saudi Arabia,” he said.

He said that it was not true that the first two Max air flights conveying Sokoto and Jigawa pilgrims on Sunday “were intercepted because only women were aboard.”

“Look at the manifest, all our flights carry both men and women,” he said.

Another top official said that the Saudis’ action is uncalled for because the fear of pilgrims refusing to come back home is no longer tenable.

“Since the introduction of e-passport by NAHCON adequately addressed the cases of pilgrims staying back in the holy land. In 2011, only 20 pilgrims absconded.