BREAKING: Nationwide Mourning As 5 Nigerians On Pilgrimage In Saudi Arabia, Die While Stepping Into The Holy City, Heads Straight To Heaven
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Chairman of the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria, NAHCON, Abdullahi Mohammed, has on Tuesday night, announced the passing of four Nigerian pilgrims on Tuesday, in Makkah, Islam’s holiest city.
However, shortly after his speech, an official on the medical team of NAHCON, announced the passage of another pilgrim from Kwara State, making it five Nigerians.
Premium Times quoted Mohammed as saying this during the 2017 pre-Arafat meeting with Hajj stakeholders, adding that, he declined to disclose the identities of the late pilgrims, and the circumstances that led to their death.
He said such information could only be disclosed after their families had been appropriately informed.
Mohammed pleaded with the media to withhold the details, so as not to further devastate the families of the affected pilgrims.
A total 81,200 Nigerian pilgrims are performing this year’s hajj. All of them have converged at Makkah, after some of them visited and prayed at the Prophet Mohammed Mosque in Madinah.
A few other pilgrims came directly to Makkah, after flying into Saudi Arabia through the nearby city of Jeddah.
All the pilgrims have performed the rites of Umrah, the lesser hajj, at al-Masjid al-Haram, situated at the Kabah.
On Wednesday, the pilgrims, like their counterparts from other parts of the world, will move to the city of Mina, to spend the eve of the 9th of Dhul-Hijah.
They will then proceed to Arafat on Thursday, praising Allah and reciting the Qur’an
