The committee carried out its assignment between 6:45PM and
7:45PM on Sunday.
The palace of Sultan Sa’ad Abubakar has now admitted that the
Sultan made a mistake by announcing the end of Ramadan based
on claims by some Nigerian Muslims that they sighted the new
moon of Shawwal on Saturday night.
The result of the joint moonsighting exercise undertaken by the
Sultanate Moon Sighting Committee and the Nigerian National
Moonsighting Committee on Sunday clearly showed that the
monarch erred in the pronouncement he made on Saturday
prematurely terminating the Ramadan fast in Nigeria.
The Sultan, who is also the President of the Nigerian Supreme
Council for Islamic Affairs [NSCIA], commissioned the joint
moonsighting investigation after his Saturday call triggered
controversy, with some of the nation’s foremost clerics as well as
the Secretary General of the NSCIA, Is-haq Oloyede, openly
questioning his judgment.
The result of the investigation, also endorsed by the Sultan’s
representatives, was unambiguous: The claim that the moon was
sighted on Saturday was questionable as it was impossible for
anyone to see the moon anywhere in the world at that time.
The committee carried out its assignment between 6:45PM and
7:45PM on Sunday.
The report of the joint committee, compiled by Usman Mahmud, a
research officer with the National Moon Sighting Committee, reads
in part:
“I write to inform you that we (the National Moon Sighting
Committee) and the Sultanate Moon Sighting Committee went to the
Sighting of Moon today (Sunday, July 27, 2014).
“The moon was not sighted with naked eye or with telescope and
binocular. However, we used some programmes and software
applications like Skymap, Stellarium and Virtual Moon to get the
details of the moon.
“The details of the Moon are: Age: 19H (hour) 05M(minutes); Hour
Angle/DE:04H 45M 11S(seconds)/ +12 21’11′; Distance between
sun and moon: 3.5′.”
Experts say the result of the investigation suggested that the Sultan
erred by declaring the end of Ramadan and beginning of Shawwal
even when a new moon had not been born.
“It was a big error,” said Sheikh Abdulrazaq Ishola, a member of the
Moonsighting Committee Worldwide, who himself was at the
AlBayrouny Observatory in Mecca that Saturday in search of the
moon. “The (Sultan’s) announcement embarrassed Nigeria all over
the world because in no other place was such ridiculous claim of
sighting the moon on Saturday made.
“How can anyone claim that he saw the moon even when
conjunction of the moon and the sun had just taken place? That is
impossible. In any case, where should we ask people to find a moon
that had not been born?”
Mr. Ishola explained that after conjunction takes place, (which he
said occurred at 11:47 PM on Saturday), it usually takes about 17
hours for the moon to be sighted with a telescope and between 18
and 23 hours to be visible to the naked eye.
“What happened in Nigeria is disrespect to Islam and Muslims,” the
cleric, who is also a a member of the Abu Dhabi-based Islamic
Crescent Observatory Project, said. “We are in the 21st century, yet
we are still living in the past in Nigeria.”
Sultan Abubakar had around midnight on Saturday announced the
sighting of the new moon and therefore the end of Ramadan,
making Nigeria the only country in the world which celebrated Eid
on Sunday.
“The new month of Shawwal was sighted in different places within
Nigeria and therefore tomorrow (Sunday) is the first day of Shawwal
equivalent to 27 July 2014,” the Sultan said in an announcement
aired on the Nigerian Television Authority [NTA].
But when contacted after the Sultan’s announcement, the Secretary-
General of the organisation, Is-haq Oloyede, a professor of Islamic
Studies, told PREMIUM TIMES he was not aware the moon had been
sighted.
“I spoke to the Sultan about four times tonight (Saturday) and he
did not tell me that the moon has been sighted,” Mr. Oloyede told
PREMIUM TIMES. “In any case, any such claim is ridiculous and
unscientific. It cannot be right.
“The National Moon-Sighting Committee has not informed us of any
credible sighting of the moon. Rather, they said the moon wasn’t
sighted. The new moon was only born at 11:45 P.M. tonight
(Saturday) and it will take several hours for it to be sighted.
“Is our own sky different? Is our own moon manufactured in
Nigeria?” he said.


m.premiumtimesng.com/news/165715-exclusive-sultans-palace-admits-moon-wasnt-sighted-before-sokoto-monarch-called-off-ramadan-in-nigeria.html

He listens to his people, that's what caused the mistake.
kudos sultan, u hv a listening ear

Saboteur @ work. Maybe he erred, and so what? What do u stand to gain from ds pointless propaganda?

papadjaji: Saboteur @ work. Maybe he erred, and so what? What do u stand to gain from ds pointless propaganda?

Maybe you should ask premium times. You probably would have been ecstatic if it where the other way round.

It's high time people should seek knowledge of the religion they practice, and don't be misled by people in authority, like I told some of my friend most Nigerian clerics are not to be trusted as most of them are religious and not Godly and we should endeavor to seek the truth either by researching through the Internet ourselves or seeking knowledge of the religion we practice by reading islamic books. Most of our religious leaders are so myopic that they tweak the words of Allah and when you challenge them with the truth they say they will the forgiveness of the Almighty and, I ask why speak of things you have no knowledge about or why hide the truth. Please my fellow muslims and brother and sisters do not let those whom we are better of mislead us that's why we should seek the knowledge islam till death overrake us. May Allah(SWT) teach and guide us aright (Ameen)