Two members of the Plateau pilgrimage contingent are missing, the Acting Secretary of the state Pilgrims Board, Mrs Hassana Ayika, has confirmed. Ayika said the roommates of the missing persons reported that they woke up in the night and did not find them on their beds which suggested that they might have absconded.

She said that the matter had been reported to the Israeli authorities through the Nigerian Embassy and that efforts were being made to track and repatriate them.

She further said that their guarantors would be punished accordingly as they would be made to bear the cost of sending them back to Nigeria.

Ayika explained that the escapees were not Plateau indigenes but from other states and were fortunate to have enjoyed the sponsorship of the state government.

She said that it was in the character of the state government to welcome “strangers’’ residing in the state and extend kind gestures to them.

“It is not the first time that the Plateau Government is sponsoring non-indigenes but it is unfortunate that this kindness is being abused.

“By what this people have done, we have broken the law of the State of Israel and their guarantors will be punished appropriately,’’ she said.

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