More than two million pilgrims from around the world have moved from Makkah to Muna, marking the official kick off of the Hajj rites.

The pilgrims, dressed in the two-piece white garment, comprising a loin cloth and a shawl (Ihram) for men, will be camped at the Muna Valley, which is 8.8 kilometres outside the city of Makkah.

This is the state in which all the pilgrims will remain in Muna until Tuesday morning, when they will proceed to Mount Arafat and subsequently, to Muzadalifah, where they will spend the night in the open.

Other activities the pilgrims will perform around Muna include the slaughtering of the sacrificial lamb, the stoning of the devil and the cutting of hair.

The pilgrims will remain in the state of Ihram until the day after Arafat, which culminates in the final Hajj rites.

For ease of coordination, pilgrims are grouped in tents by their countries in Muna, while Nigeria will distribute the tents on a state by state basis.

This year’s hajj is the largest since the COVID-19 scourge and the first to be held without restrictions.

Pilgrims from Kwara State, North Central Nigeria are also presently in Muna, preparatory to the short journey to the Arafah Valley, for the most important peak of the lslamic Holy Pilgrimage.

Meanwhile, Voice of Nigeria reports that the Chief Imam of Ilorin, Imam Bashir Salihu, led Kwara State Pilgrims in a special prayer in Muna, attended by several dignitaries, including Alhaji Umar Ibrahim Bologi, the Etsu Patigi, who doubles as the 2023 Amirul Hajj.

Other dignitaries who witnessed the event include former Secretary to the Kwara State Government, Professor Mamman Jibril, the Chairman of the Kwara State Pilgrims Board, Dr. Abdulkadir Shambaki, Executive Secretary of the Board, Alhaji Abdulsalam Abdulkadir and former Special Adviser on Religion to the State Governor, Mallam Ibrahim Dan Maigoro, among others.

In a related development, barely three days to Sallah, Muslims planning to buy rams have decried the soaring prices of the livestock in major markets across Ilorin, the Kwara State capital

Visits to ram markets in Ilorin, showed that small, medium-sized and big rams were selling for between N55,000 and N400,000, in a few cases, above N400,000.

Some buyers expressed dissatisfaction with the high cost of rams and called for interventions to reduce the prices before the celebration on Wednesday 28th of June.

One ram seller, Alhaji Ahmed Alaba of Kuntu-Oja Tun-tun market in Ilorin, blamed the high cost of living in the country as a major cause of the high ram prices.

He explained that food and transportation of the rams are among the causes that led to the high prices.