curator
Administrator
There was tension twice yesterday at the Maiduguri airport in Borno State as the Nigerian military barred 278 Islamic pilgrims headed for the Umrah pilgrimage from boarding a flight. In a separate development, the military also stopped Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume from taking a flight out of Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State.
Our correspondent gathered that the military prohibited the senator and other pilgrims from boarding the chartered aircraft and forced both flights to take off from the Maiduguri airport with empty seats.
One of the frustrated pilgrims told our correspondent that he and the others intended to travel to Saudi Arabia to perform the Umrah. Another source disclosed that Governor Kashim Shettima had intervened to enable the pilgrims to fly, but his efforts yielded no results.
“There was raised tension at the airport,” one of the sources said.
Skynet International Limited, a hajj and Umrah operator, had chartered an airline to convey the pilgrims to their destination. But as the 278 pilgrims, who had undergone security checks, waited to board the plane, the military issued what one source described as “a strange orders” directing the plane to take off empty. The military then directed the pilgrims to travel five hours by road to the Kano airport through the often-unsafe Maiduguri-Damaturu-Potiskum Road.
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Source: #SaharaReporters
Our correspondent gathered that the military prohibited the senator and other pilgrims from boarding the chartered aircraft and forced both flights to take off from the Maiduguri airport with empty seats.
One of the frustrated pilgrims told our correspondent that he and the others intended to travel to Saudi Arabia to perform the Umrah. Another source disclosed that Governor Kashim Shettima had intervened to enable the pilgrims to fly, but his efforts yielded no results.
“There was raised tension at the airport,” one of the sources said.
Skynet International Limited, a hajj and Umrah operator, had chartered an airline to convey the pilgrims to their destination. But as the 278 pilgrims, who had undergone security checks, waited to board the plane, the military issued what one source described as “a strange orders” directing the plane to take off empty. The military then directed the pilgrims to travel five hours by road to the Kano airport through the often-unsafe Maiduguri-Damaturu-Potiskum Road.
Click here to read more
Source: #SaharaReporters
