MECCA STAMPEDED: Panti Zing and Amirul Hajj of Adamawa State feared dead

As reported by the nation

Mecca, Medina, Mina and allied sacred cities are only among the privileged few, among the globe’s holiest religious destinations, to which pilgrims flock every year.  Even if the whole of the pilgrim population were to perish, that calamity would still not dull these cities’ appeal.  Faith, after all, is a thing of the mind.

Besides, by Islamic belief, dying in Mecca during pilgrimage is religious bliss; for to the deceased would come additional blessings the living cannot boast, as (s)he enters Al-Jannah a privileged soul indeed.  But it was never conceived as being crushed by cranes or being squashed in stampedes.

Which is why the Saudi authorities must take the blame for these twin-tragedies; and must wake up to their responsibilities.

By Allah, Nigeria has paid dearly for these man-made errors, in lost lives and crushed limbs.  From the stampede, no fewer than 56 Nigerians — and still counting — out of a casualty figure of 769 so far have perished, many of them the cream of their generation.

The morbid list: Justice Abdulkadir Jega, presiding judge, Court of Appeal, Abuja, and brother to Prof. Attahiru Jega, former INEC chairman, Justice Musa Hassan Alkali, another Court of Appeal judge, Alhaji Abbas Ibrahim, the Panti Zing (traditional ruler of Zing, in Adamawa State) and Amirul Hajj (leader) of the Adamawa delegation, with two of his four wives, Prof. Tijani Abubakar El-Miskin, the famed Islamic scholar, Hajiya Bilikisu Yusuf, former editor of defunct Citizen magazine.  And to think of the fate of Alhaji Bello Gidan-Hamma, former caretaker chairman of Illela Local Government of Sokoto State, with himself, mother, stepmother and two wives perishing in the stampede!