Nigerian army prevents 278 Muslim pilgrims from leaving Maiduguri airport

by S’ola Filani

 

army

 

The Nigerian military allegedly barred 278 Islamic pilgrims, including a senator, Mohammed Ali Ndume, headed for the Umrah pilgrimage from boarding a flight out of Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State on Friday.

SaharaReporters claims the military prevented the senator and other pilgrims from boarding the chartered aircraft and forced both flights to take off from the Maiduguri airport unoccupied.

While reacting to the report, the military in a statement signed by its Director of Defence and Information, Chris Olukolade, claimed the airport was only observing restriction of the facility to military use in the light of ongoing operations in the area.

“An alternative arrangement was however worked out in concert with the relevant authorities in the state, to enable the movement proceed. This process has continued smoothly despite the inconveniencies which will be ameliorated as the exercise progress.

“The sensitivity of the situation in the country calls for due caution and conscious effort to avoid yielding to the pressure from those who are apparently sympathetic to those working frantically to undermine the nation’s security. The public is therefore requested to ignore all insinuations inferring religious or political connotations from the security measures put in place in Maiduguri airport. The intention has never been to jeopardize the airlifting of pilgrims as has been wrongly portrayed” the statement read.

One comment

  1. hello in time of honoy of life people think all things some people do is from there culture roh there life

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