Rivers State Moslem Pilgrims in Saudi Arabia may not return to Nigeria until December 5. The pilgrims arrived Saudi Arabia for this year’s Hajj on Tuesday October 25, via 747 Max Airline Ltd. They completed their Hajj rites along with other Muslim faithfuls in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, November 9. But while pilgrims from other parts of the world are already making preparations to return home, the Rivers State pilgrims are at the mercy of the airlines. The flight ticket schedule issued by Max Airlines indicates December 10 as returning date for Rivers pilgrims. Although officials of the Rivers State Muslim Pilgrimage Board expressed optimism that the departure date was subject to review by the airline and may be brought nearer, there are no indication that the Rivers contingents would leave Saudi Arabia earlier than December 5.

Sources told The Tide that efforts by the pilgrims board to convince the airlines to reduce the departure date by at least two weeks did not yield results on the airlines only conceded five days reduction.

An official of the board, Mr Taofeed A. Adeleke had on Friday last week met with the airline officials in Jeddah on the possibility of reducing the departure date by two weeks.

As the time of filing this report, many pilgrims are anxious to leave for Nigeria.

They expressed worry that spending extra one month after completing the Hajj rites is uncalled for. They therefore appealed to the Max Airlines to reconsider their departure date. Some state contingents including Kano, Lagos, had returned to Nigeria while others are billed to take off this week.