Miss World: No link to riots
2002-11-22 15:02
Abuja - The organisers of the Miss World beauty contest insisted on Friday that rioting in the northern Nigerian city of Kaduna which has left more than 100 dead has nothing to do with their event.
Fighting broke out in Kaduna on Wednesday after a newspaper article on the event, planned for December 7 in Abuja, offended Muslims with a claim that the Prophet Mohammed would have wanted to marry one of the contestants.
"We believe it is only proper that we allow state institutions to address the matters concerned (the rioting)," a Miss World spokesman announced at a brief news conference in Abuja.
"It is, however, pertinent to point out that the present situation has nothing to do with the hosting of this pageant, we are reliably informed by the appropriate authorities," he added.
Miss World events will continue as scheduled with a fashion show in the southern city of Port Harcourt on Saturday. There is no plan to cancel December's grand finale, the organisation said.
Although the rioting in Kaduna seems to have been triggered by the article, which appeared last Sunday in a Lagos-based daily, there is broad and mounting opposition to the pageant itself among many Nigerian Muslims. - Sapa-AFP
- SAPA