Saudi Arabia yesterday ignored protests by the Nigerian government over the deportation of female pilgrims to the holyland as the Saudi authorities deported another batch of 510 Nigerian female pilgrims to this year’s hajj. 171 pilgrims had earlier been deported on Wednesday.

The authorities of Saudi Arabia insisted that the women were unaccompanied by male relations which was considered against laid down rules of the kingdom.

An adamant Saudi Arabia has so far refused to yield any ground to Nigeria on the issue of alleged unaccompanied female pilgrims, in spite of spirited diplomatic efforts by the Federal Government.

An intriguing development was that the husband of one of the female deportees also returned home with his wife, in protest, when the Saudi Authorities refused to clear his wife, even after explaining that he was the husband of the woman.

A highly placed source at the National Hajj Commission who disclosed this said that the return (in protest) by the male pilgrim in question was an indication that there was more to the stance of the Saudi authorities than meets the eyes.

He said: “On board of the plane bringing the women is also a male pilgrim. He decided to return home with his wife in protest when his explanations and entreaties to the fact that his wife was accompanied fell on deaf ears. That shows clearly that there is more to the issue than meets the eyes”.

It was learnt that the Chairman of the commission, Mallam Mohammed Bello, had a hectic day in Abuja, yesterday, as he had to shuttle between the Presidency and the National Assembly to brief his bosses in the executive, as well as, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, who is the leader of the Federal Government delegation to this year’s hajj.

Officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, were, until yesterday, still making efforts to get the necessary clearance for a Federal Government delegation to visit Saudi Arabia with a view to resolving the issue.

President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan had on Wednesday constituted a Presidential delegation to interface with the Saudi authorities over the issue surrounding the detained Nigerian female pilgrims at King Abdul-Azziz International Airport, Jeddah.

The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, named Aminu Tambuwal as leader of that delegation.

Other members are: Minister of State II for Foreign Affairs, Dr. Nuruddeen Mohammed, Ambassador Shehu Galadanchi; Sheikh Sherif Saleh and Chairman of the Hajj Commission, Muhammad Bello.

The delegation is expected to depart for Saudi Arabia as soon as an appointment is finalised with the appropriate Saudi authorities.

Senate had on Wednesday asked President Goodluck Jonathan to liaise with the King of Saudi Arabia, King Fahad Abdulaziz to allow over 1, 500 Nigerian female pilgrims stranded in Saudi airport entry into the holy land to perform their hajj.

The directive was upon the adoption of a motion entitled, ‘Refusal of the Saudi Arabian Authority to grant entry to over 500 Nigerian female pilgrims’ sponsored by Senator Atiku Bagudu.

Leading debate on the motion, Bagudu lamented the refusal of Saudi Arabian authorities to allow the pilgrims entry into the country despite fulfilling all visa requirements.

He said, “Over 500 Nigerian female pilgrims from the various states of the federation that arrived Saudi Arabia for this year’s hajj were denied entry upon arrival at the airport in Jedda and Medina.

“All the requirements for visa and entry into Saudi Arabia had been met by the pilgrims and were still denied entry.”

The motion was widely supported by Senators as some of them that spoke yesterday urged Nigerian government to quickly intervene in the crisis, adding that the stranded pilgrims are going through untold hardships.

Senator Uche Chukwumerije, PDP, Abia while contributing to the motion asked the Federal Government to develop a new foreign policy that will protect Nigerians abroad.

He said, “Nigeria must take a robust diplomatic position and make it clear to the world that any Nigeria anywhere must be given protection of that place, if they failed, we are going to visit same on their citizens here.”

Chukwumerije also urged the Senate to mandate local coordinating authorities to ensure that pilgrims fulfill all the legal requirements of Saudi Arabia before embarking on pilgrimage.

Senate President, David Mark, who presided over the motion in his ruling, decried the situation despite interventions from Federal Government.

Mark urged the Saudi Arabia authorities to allow the pilgrims perform their religious obligation having arrived in the country.

He said, “I think that from the effort so made by the Minister of foreign affairs, rather than urge government, I think that we should ask the President to talk directly with the Saudi king because the way they operate there, nobody else may make any difference. The foreign Affairs Minister has done all he can, he has spoken to his counterpart, he has invited the ambassador, they have done whatever they possibly can and nothing has changed

“Our pilgrim having gone this far, we should insist that they should be allowed to perform the hajj and if there are lessons, we will take the necessary corrections.”

It will be recalled that no fewer than 1200 Nigerian female pilgrims from Taraba and Katsina states who were denied entry into Saudi Arabia and deported from the Medina airport, yesterday arrived the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano, ..

Meanwhile, the Saudi Arabian Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Khalid Abdrabuh yesterday gave an assurance that the controversy over the detention of about 1,200 female Nigerian pilgrims in Saudi Arabia will be resolved today.

More than 908 women were detained at the Jeddah Airport while 171 of them were deported to Nigeria on Wednesday.

The Saudi Ambassador explained that the issue of detention of pilgrims who failed to meet entry requirements was not restricted to Nigeria. According to him, some pilgrims from other countries have also been subjected to similar screening on arrival at the Holy Land.

He also hinted that officials of the Saudi Ministry of Hajj were already holding talks with a delegation of the Nigerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Mecca on the issue.

He made the pledge shortly after meeting with the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Aminu Tambuwal at the National Assembly.

The Federal Government had on Wednesday given the Saudi Arabian government 24 hours to resolve the issue. The Vice President, Namadi Sambo who gave the order also appointed Tambuwal as head of federal government delegation to Saudi Arabia to resolve the impasse.

On the strenght of that presidential intervention, Tambuwal met with the Saudi Arabian envoy behind closed doors on Thursday where the duo deliberated on the way out of the pilgrimage standoff.

Tambuwal who spoke to journalists at the end of the meeting also disclosed that the Nigerian mission in Riyadh has been meeting with the Saudi authorities to resolve the situation.

However, chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Hon. Nnenna Elendu-Ukeje, has warned that Nigeria will not hesitate to bring back her people if the issue was not resolved today.

The National Hajj Commission of Nigeria had on Wednesday briefed the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House on the matter. The standoff began when the Saudi Arabian authorities discovered that hundreds of female Nigerian pilgrims were without their statutory male escorts which is a prerequisite to entry into Saudi Arabia.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2012/09/saudi-arabia-deports-more-nigerian-women-pigrims/

A backhand slap on the face of Nigeria. What a shame.

@Post

Signs of the end times. Nation shall be against nation and kingdom against kingdom. I hope this issue is resolved quickly.

Thank you Saudi Arabia!!!! Thanks for showing Nigerians that they are meaningless, especially those wearing bedsheets in Sokoto.

Your country has good roads, constant light, where everyone speaks the same language, united under one culture, and where leaders want the best for their people.

Please continue to send the SHAMELESS Nigg.ers back to their messed up country that they cant use their silly brains to want to develop.

I dont understand why this country being humiliated and ridiculed on this Hajj issue.Is it that the pilgrims were not aware of the requirement and this condition that mandates a female pilgrim to come with a male relative was introduced without appropriately informing the pilgrims before they left the shores of Nigeria or these people just want to 'settle' their way at all cost to circumvent that clause as some nigerians are wont to do?If it is the former,then saudi arabia govt should be sued appropriately and made to apologize to these pilgrims but if these pilgrims knew ahead but chose to still go ahead on the hajj,they should all be prosecuted for using securing their pilgrim travel papers on false declaration that they are accompanied by their male relatives and they should be seriously punished for the great embarrassment they have caused the nation.The hajj officials that allowed these pilgrims should not be spared,I dont see any sense asking a high-ranking speaker of house of reps going to Saudi for this issue,in fact,it is a sign of unseriousness and shows how idle the office of the speaker is.The civil service bureaucracy alone is sufficient to find and establish what went wrong and make recommendations to the govt.Why further humiliate this nation?the vice president abandoned state duties the whole of yesterday to meet with saudi ambassador to discuss this kind of issue that the foreign affairs minister can handle better like the minister did with the south african yellow fever card diplomatic palava.Methinks,it is absolutely unnecessary for Tambuwal to go to saudi,he should stay around to co-ordinate the capital project inspection the house plan to start next week!!

OK,fine! Depot Boko Haram boys to Saudi! Abi no be them people?

onomeasike: I dont understand why this country being humiliated and ridiculed on this Hajj issue.Is it that the pilgrims were not aware of the requirement and this condition that mandates a female pilgrim to come with a male relative was introduced without appropriately informing the pilgrims before they left the shores of Nigeria or these people just want to 'settle' their way at all cost to circumvent that clause as some nigerians are wont to do?If it is the former,then saudi arabia govt should be sued appropriately and made to apologize to these pilgrims but if these pilgrims knew ahead but chose to still go ahead on the hajj,they should all be prosecuted for using securing their pilgrim travel papers on false declaration that they are accompanied by their male relatives and they should be seriously punished for the great embarrassment they have caused the nation.The hajj officials that allowed these pilgrims should not be spared,I dont see any sense asking a high-ranking speaker of house of reps going to Saudi for this issue,in fact,it is a sign of unseriousness and shows how idle the office of the speaker is.The civil service bureaucracy alone is sufficient to find and establish what went wrong and make recommendations to the govt.Why further humiliate this nation?the vice president abandoned state duties the whole of yesterday to meet with saudi ambassador to discuss this kind of issue that the foreign affairs minister can handle better like the minister did with the south african yellow fever card diplomatic palava.Methinks,it is absolutely unnecessary for Tambuwal to go to saudi,he should stay around to co-ordinate the capital project inspection the house plan to start next week!!

What is all this grammer about. No one respects you guys, because your country is messed up. Stop trying to tag along with the Arabs who's country is superior to yours.

If they like the women can have proper papers, can have their husbands, regardless, you are their monkeys

onomeasike: I dont understand why this country being humiliated and ridiculed on this Hajj issue.Is it that the pilgrims were not aware of the requirement and this condition that mandates a female pilgrim to come with a male relative was introduced without appropriately informing the pilgrims before they left the shores of Nigeria or these people just want to 'settle' their way at all cost to circumvent that clause as some nigerians are wont to do?If it is the former,then saudi arabia govt should be sued appropriately and made to apologize to these pilgrims but if these pilgrims knew ahead but chose to still go ahead on the hajj,they should all be prosecuted for using securing their pilgrim travel papers on false declaration that they are accompanied by their male relatives and they should be seriously punished for the great embarrassment they have caused the nation.The hajj officials that allowed these pilgrims should not be spared,I dont see any sense asking a high-ranking speaker of house of reps going to Saudi for this issue,in fact,it is a sign of unseriousness and shows how idle the office of the speaker is.The civil service bureaucracy alone is sufficient to find and establish what went wrong and make recommendations to the govt.Why further humiliate this nation?the vice president abandoned state duties the whole of yesterday to meet with saudi ambassador to discuss this kind of issue that the foreign affairs minister can handle better like the minister did with the south african yellow fever card diplomatic palava.Methinks,it is absolutely unnecessary for Tambuwal to go to saudi,he should stay around to co-ordinate the capital project inspection the house plan to start next week!!

Nigerians should start treating foreigners in Nigeria the same way they are treated abroad. The problem is that Nigerians back home and even some abroad 'worship' people from other racial groups while these non black people in turn treat Nigerians like trash. It's just pathetic.

onomeasike:
An intriguing development was that the husband of one of the female deportees also returned home with his wife, in protest, when the Saudi Authorities refused to clear his wife, even after explaining that he was the husband of the woman.

A highly placed source at the National Hajj Commission who disclosed this said that the return (in protest) by the male pilgrim in question was an indication that there was more to the stance of the Saudi authorities than meets the eyes.

He said: “On board of the plane bringing the women is also a male pilgrim. He decided to return home with his wife in protest when his explanations and entreaties to the fact that his wife was accompanied fell on deaf ears. That shows clearly that there is more to the issue than meets the eyes”.
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2012/09/saudi-arabia-deports-more-nigerian-women-pigrims/

I wonder what Maclatunji,Tbaba,Deols and their ilk who love to scream their selves hoarse on here have to say about this

mens dept:

What is all this grammer about. No one respects you guys, because your country is messed up. Stop trying to tag along with the Arabs who's country is superior to yours.

If they like the women can have proper papers, can have their husbands, regardless, you are their monkeys

I will save my response till I get answers to my posers,ti iyanla ba gbeni su bu,kekere a o ma gun ori re.Are they aware of the clause and still went ahead or not?If any nairalander knows,pls inform us.This hajj embarrassment is too sickening.If people are encouraging pilgrims to violate that travel condition,then Heads must roll,from these amorphous state hajj commissions to the national hajj commission,the whole thing is becoming a charade!!

Hmmm.

The saudi action was not good enough.

Why doing this to us?

mens dept:

What is all this grammer about. No one respects you guys, because your country is messed up. Stop trying to tag along with the Arabs who's country is superior to yours.

If they like the women can have proper papers, can have their husbands, regardless, you are their monkeys

SHAT YOR MOUTH! WHOSE COUNTRY IS MESSED UP? DO U HAVE A COUNTRY TO START WIT. U BLACK-SLAVE-LIVIN-DIASPORA-PIECE-OF-SHYITE?! BEAST OF NO NATION.

Fu.c.k saudi c.um suckers. Them cows are treating the nigger cows well. Maybe they would come back to Chukwu. Chukwu reigns supreme at the end. Come to chukwu, it is the solution you desert niggers.

It was learnt that the Chairman of the commission, Mallam Mohammed Bello, had a hectic day in Abuja, yesterday

i can imagine.

This is a big lesson to all those terrorists taking money from Arab countries. They don't love you,they are only using you to sow seeds of religious and ethnic discord. You'll never qualify as an equal no matter how you try. Let's all just come 2gether and unite and make this country a great one.

If there is a catoon of the guy call prophet mohamed you guys will unite under one spirit, that is to kill and to distroy xtians,imagine they even said is against the law of the saudi authourity not the law of God with whom they travel thousands miles to worship, God almighty is evry where,is only prophet mohamed that is in arabian penisula, Meanwhle lets waite the reaction of the federal government

WHAT A BIG SHAME!

Adding insults to injuries.More disgrace and embarassment awaits this country. First,ur women deported.Second,ur leaders protest turned on deaf hears. Third,Mark,Timbuwal,Sambo all failed and now ur president wil go and lick the arse of Saudi Authorities cos u wana do Hajj. This is the height of it all. Your leaders dont mean nothing to these nations and "they dont give a damn" about them. Irresponsible leaders controlng blind,dump followers. I await what the trainee presidency led administratn wil do. Ordinary Hajj they cant go.No light,roads,jobs,infrastructures,good education, no nothing. All they are good at is corruption and lawlessness. Embezelling galore and their suffering followers watching them helplessly. This country is pathetic

Nigerians shouldn't take this as a tragedy, it is more tragic that educated Nigerians are regarding this as a tragedy.

saintchris: This is a big lesson to all those terrorists taking money from Arab countries. They don't love you,they are only using you to sow seeds of religious and ethnic discord. You'll never qualify as an equal no matter how you try. Let's all just come 2gether and unite and make this country a great one.

no they wont! To see how stupid they are! Instead they will unite with arabs to protest about a film in america!

Those saudians should have chain them all together and put them in dungeon inthe middle of a desert to die alone! Atleast some food they would have consume in nigeria shld be used and feed their sons & daughters begging in every corner of nigeria! i know the God of the poor is not happy this women are deported back to nigeria, atleast we all know they re useless to the society!

dasparrow:

Nigerians should start treating foreigners in Nigeria the same way they are treated abroad. The problem is that Nigerians back home and even some abroad 'worship' people from other racial groups while these non black people in turn treat Nigerians like trash. It's just pathetic.

Let the truth be told,our government often sends their girlfriends and concubine who most on reaching Saudi vanishes into thin air.This happens every year.This is a reflection of our attitude simple.

maryjames9: Adding insults to injuries.More disgrace and embarassment awaits this country. First,ur women deported.Second,ur leaders protest turned on deaf hears. Third,Mark,Timbuwal,Sambo all failed and now ur president wil go and lick the arse of Saudi Authorities cos u wana do Hajj. This is the height of it all. Your leaders dont mean nothing to these nations and "they dont give a damn" about them. Irresponsible leaders controlng blind,dump followers. I await what the trainee presidency led administratn wil do. Ordinary Hajj they cant go.No light,roads,jobs,infrastructures,good education, no nothing. All they are good at is corruption and lawlessness. Embezelling galore and their suffering followers watching them helplessly. This country is pathetic

is the government suppose to be paying for pilgrimage?...if you love your God and religion so much, it would be better to spend your hard earned currency to celebrate your religious madness...sorry i forgot that it was another avenue for them to loot our national treasure...MECCA AND JERUSALEM LOVERS AT THE EXPENSE OF MY TAX THAT I DON'T GET ANYTHING FROM.

This is a punishment by the Saudi kingdom for the slow response by the Northern Nigerian Muslims in protesting against the film 'innocence of muslims'. Their tepid and half-hearted protests came after they have allowed their taskmasters in the middle-east to seize the initiative of shedding a few gallons of blood. Even when their protests eventually took off, it was only a few idle hands that took to the street with no violence recorded nor adequate drums of kafir blood flowing. This is a great betrayer of the great prophet, a green light to more ridiculous cartoons (France and Spain), a misapplication of religious grants and a slap on the taskmasters in the middle-east.

Besides being deported in their hundreds, their aids and grants will also be drastically cut down so that they can learn the virtues of spontaneity of protest. I support more deportation.

british airways saga (for big men)
Govt wades in.
Hajj, govt intervene, but poor man matter like bad roads in rivers state, Govt goes to coma.

Who was that guy that said Nigeria has a Trainee presido??

Lol!!!

Truckpusher: is the government suppose to be paying for pilgrimage?...if you love your God and religion so much, it would be better to spend your hard earned currency to celebrate your religious madness...sorry i forgot that it was another avenue for them to loot our national treasure...MECCA AND JERUSALEM LOVERS AT THE EXPENSE OF MY TAX THAT I DON'T GET ANYTHING FROM.

What is this guy saying.If u read my posts,u wil know that i'm no religious bigot.I can assure u my dear that i wil say the same thing if same treatment was metted to Nigerians in Jerusalem. So stop posting garbage. I was attacking the government not religion ok? So putting up dumb senseles defense

I'm not happy my nigeria is on this list of countries facing deportation excercise from saudi arabia. As a muslim am deeply touched by this development. May ALLAH help us!

This is embarrassing to say the least, I just hope our so called leaders learn from all this disgrace befalling them.

I'll still blame the Nigerian gov't for still sending more Nigerians for terrorist training in S. Arabia. I hope that they will live long enough to reap it's fruit.

A friend I met in Doha sometime ago, told me how some of these women come for love peddling and other vices.

Just like nysc.. This na "batch b"

An intriguing development was that the husband of one of the female deportees also returned home with his wife, in protest, when the Saudi Authorities refused to clear his wife, even after explaining that he was the husband of the woman. VERY GOOD... SAUDI ARABI many thanks. Saudi muslins want peace. They don't want people who will come n terrorise their people. This showed dat they are against wat d so called Nigerian muslim are doing in nigeria over d issue of boko haram. Nigeria muslims are not portraying d good image of a true muslims. Is a shame they r rejected by their fellow Muslims. D blood of d innocent is begining to hunt them. Shame to nigeria muslims. Anywhere they go they will see them as boko haram and so b rejected.SHAME!!!

jp philips: british airways saga (for big men)
Govt wades in.
Hajj, govt intervene, but poor man matter like bad roads in rivers state, Govt goes to coma.

Who was that guy that said Nigeria has a Trainee presido??

Lol!!!

Na oga Tinubu talk am