President Muhammadu Buhari has again canceled this year’s traditional Sallah homage to the Presidential Villa by religious, community and political leaders due to the global Coronavirus crisis.
According to Buhari’s Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, the President, First Family, his personal aides, members of cabinet and Service Chiefs who choose to remain in Abuja, will congregate in full compliance with COVID-19 protocols at the forecourt of the Presidential Villa to observe the Eid prayers at 9 a.m.
Shehu also announced that there would be no traditional Sallah homage to the President by religious, community and political leaders after the prayer.
”As was the case last year, the President encourages such leaders to be content with modest celebrations at home in view of the pandemic,” he said.
Buhari also thanked the Ulama (Islamic Clerics) and all other religious (Muslim, Christian) leaders who had been praying for the wellbeing of the nation and its people.
”The President, in addition, takes this opportunity to condole with all who lost family members due to what he described as the ‘madness’ going on in parts of the country,” the statement added.
Buhari also called on all local leaders to talk to their youths and warn them against being used to incite and foment violence.
This is a reoccurrence of last year’s routine as President Buhari had on May 22, 2020 pledged to conduct his Eid prayers with his family at home as directed by the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III, who is also the President General of the Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI),
The President, in a statement released by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, in Abuja, said his decision to observe the Eid prayer at home was also in observance of the lockdown measures in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, put in place “to save lives and protect people from all dangers.”
The protocol of social distancing was also exhibited during the two-raka’at prayer.