SAN FRANCISCO, October 05, (THEWILL) – Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno State has signed an agreement with 30 Saudi-based clerics who are residing in the city of Makka, the seat of Islam’s holiest mosque, to endlessly pray for the return of peace in Borno, a government statement said.
The governor, who has been in Saudi Arabia since last week, had the agreement sealed with the 30 clerics whose responsibility, henceforth is to offer prayers and perform daily tawaf (circulation) around the holy Kaaba.
The governor’s spokesperson, Isa Gusau, said all the 30 clerics are of Nigerian origin — from Borno, Katsina, Zamfara, Kano and parts of the northwest — and have been living in Makka for decades where they devoted themselves to prayers by spending hours at the Ka’aba.
Gusau who described the governor’s action as a “critical move” said, “An old man amongst them is said to have remained a Ka’aba devotee in the last 40 years.”
“The Ka’aba is Islam’s holiest area located inside the grand Al-Haram mosque in Makkah,” he said.
He said the aim is to combine different approaches that include sustained support for the Nigerian Armed forces, aggressive mass recruitment and equipping of more counter-insurgency volunteers into the Civilian JTF, hunters, and vigilantes as well as socioeconomic approach in enhancing access to education, job opportunities and providing other means of livelihood through social protection initiatives.
Muslims believe that prayers offered in the holy mosque of Kaaba are speedily granted.
Meanwhile, the North East state has been tormented by Boko Haram insurgency since 2009 with more than 20,000 people said to have been killed by the terrorist group while millions have been displaced.
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