Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), has accused Saudi Arabia’s authority of not doing enough to
forestall the recent stampede, which claimed hundreds of lives, saying it was devastated and
in a mourning mood with the bereaved families.
MURIC Director, Prof. Ishaq Akintola Akintola, who is also
performing the Hajj, decried the loss of lives of highly-
placed Nigerians in the stampede.
Recounting how the incident occurred, Akintola said: “As
eyewitnesses of the gory stampede incident, we testify that
it was caused by security breakdown on the part of the
Saudi authorities.”
“We left Muzdalifah for Mina around 6am on that fateful
day. We branched in the NAHCON camp to drop our
personal effects and headed straight to Jamrat, which was
less than three kilometres away.
“To our surprise, the road was blocked by Egyptian pilgrims
who had cast their own stones and were returning to their
camp.
“Instead of taking the route designated for returning
pilgrims, they stubbornly took the route meant for those
who were going.
“The road became narrow and movement became difficult.
The atmosphere became charged and even breathing and
visibility were affected. The few policemen around
desperately threw water at us to save us from collapsing.
“It became glaring to us at that moment that a monumental
stampede was just around the corner.
“The Saudi authorities, therefore, lied when they tried to
put the blame squarely on African pilgrims.
“The stampede would not have occurred at all if Saudi
security agents had disallowed pilgrims returning from the
Jamrat from taking the same route on their way back.
“The practice over the years has always been to take a
detour but this was not enforced last Thursday.
“The fact that the road to the same Jamrat became very
free and safe on Friday and Saturday morning when Saudi
security agents strictly enforced the rules by disallowing
returning pilgrims to use the same route as those going
proves that our hypothesis is correct.
“This is criminal negligence and the Saudi authorities must
be held accountable. We urge the Nigerian government to
support NAHCON’s stand on this. Nigeria must demand
compensation from the Saudis for families of the bereaved.
“We should also task the Saudis to involve the world
Muslim Ummah in the planning and implementation of the
annual Hajj exercise in view of the emerging scenario of
complacency on the part of the Saudi authorities.”
MURIC also hailed NAHCON for insisting that Nigeria
should be part of any investigation of the tragedy.
No comments:
Post a Comment