The 382 pilgrims arrived at Murtala Muhammad International Airport, Lagos at 2:12am aboard Flynas flight XY7602.
Browsing: Mecca
Pilgrims in white robes (Ihram) and sandals packed the ancient city, now dotted with luxury hotels and air-conditioned shopping malls, after flooding in on planes, buses, and trains for the annual rites.
When the world looks towards Nigeria, it sees a country shawled in a towel of blood and hopelessness.
Speaking on Tuesday at a meeting with members of the State Muslims Pilgrims Welfare Board, led by its Chairman, Alhaji Babatunde Onipede, in Ado-Ekiti, Egbeyem noted that both the federal and state governments had stopped sponsoring pilgrims on holy pilgrimages to save funds for development purposes.
This was contained in a statement by the Executive Secretary of the Board, Alhaji Salau Babatunde, on Monday.
Millions of Muslims from around the world usually descend on Saudi Arabia for the Umrah and Haj Islamic pilgrimages.
Saudi Arabia imposed on Thursday a 24-hour curfew in Mecca and Medina as part of precautionary measures against the coronavirus, Saudi Press Agency said.
Saudi Arabia on Wednesday temporarily halted citizens and foreign residents from carrying out the Umrah pilgrimage in Makkah to prevent coronavirus spread, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
Four people – including one woman – were executed in Saudi Arabia on Monday for drug trafficking, according to Sauid news.
Saudi authorities say two million Muslims from around the world are expected to converge on Islam’s holiest city of Mecca and nearby sites in Saudi Arabia to perform the Hajj pilgrimage, which starts Sunday.
Saudi Arabia on Thursday said more than 1.6 million pilgrims from all over the world have arrived Mecca to perform the 2018 Hajj.
Saudi Arabia said Thursday it banned five vehicles loaded with camels from entering Mecca in a bid to protect pilgrims from contagious diseases.
The first batch of 445 pilgrims from Kogi State on Saturday arrived in Madinah on board the inaugural flight for this year’s Hajj in Saudi Arabia.
The authorities said it is not obligatory for anyone with a serious health condition to perform Hajj.
Last year, a Saudi man tried to set himself on fire in front of the Kaaba but was stopped by security forces
However, some civil society groups and prominent Muslims have asked NAHCON to shift the deadline. Independent Hajj Reporters in a statement by its chairman, Ibrahim Muhammad, said that for Nigeria to maximally utilize her 95, 000 slots for the year, that the deadline was not attainable. Its findings showed that less than a month to the deadline, states pilgrims’ boards were yet to register 40 percent of the allocations given to Nigeria by the Saudi Arabian Government.
Five others were injured in the house in Mecca’s district of Shara al-Mujahdeen, a spokesman for Mecca’s Civil Defence, Nayef al-Sherif, added in a media statement.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the vendors are Nigerians residing in the Holy Land.
The Islamic year started counting in 622 AD after the emigration of Prophet Muhammad from Mecca to Medina in Saudi Arabia.
The Board’s Public Relations Officer, Alhaji Nuhu Badamasi, told the News Agency of Nigeria on telephone from Makkah that the deceased who were males, died in Makkah after performing their Hajj rites at the Ararat.