Nigerian president orders probe of deported female pilgrims

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan on Thursday ordered a thorough postmortem of some Nigerian female pilgrims deported from Mecca over the issue of male companions. The Nigerian leader disclosed this in his Eid-El-Kabir Message to the West African nation in the capital Abuja. He said the essence of the probe was to ensure that Hajj airlift operations were never disrupted by such problems in future and Nigerian pilgrims not subjected to such traumatic experience again. More than 1,000 Nigerian female pilgrims in Saudi Arabia adjudged by the authority to be without male companion (Muharram) were detained and later deported from Jeddah and Madinah. On Sept. 26, Nigerian Vice President Namadi Sambo summoned Saudi Arabian Ambassador to Nigeria Khaled Abdrabuh to his office and requested the Saudi Arabian authorities to apply caution and flexibility to allow the pilgrims to undertake their sacred religious duties. Sambo expressed the country's displeasure over the treatment being meted out to Nigerians going to this year's pilgrimage in the holy land. He said reports available to him suggested that only Nigerian pilgrims were being subjected to such dehumanizing treatment. Sambo complained that no reasonable and responsible government would sit and fold its arms while its citizens are manhandled.