MUSLIMS all over the world are expected to celebrate the Eid-el-Adha (sallah) festival on Friday, October 26.
The festival, popularly called Ileya, will take place on the 10th day of the month Dul-Adha, when pilgrims are expected to have come down from Mount Arafat.
The over three million pilgrims currently in Saudi Arabia for the annual rite were expected to climb Mount Arafat on Thursday and descend on Friday.
The celebration of the festival is associated with the killing of rams by Muslims worldwide.
In Nigeria, Muslims are expected to assemble in open fields to offer prayers to Allah on the occasion.
After the prayers, killings of rams will take place to signify the celebration of the festival.
Meanwhile, the cost of rams in different parts of the country is now out of the reach of most Muslims.
The prices, investigation revealed, skyrocketed largely because few sellers were able to sell rams.
Most of the sellers blamed the crisis in the Northern part of the country for the hike in the price of commodities.
A ram seller, Mallam Muhammad Subair, said in Ibadan, Oyo State capital, that the cost of transportation also affected the price of rams.
“Transporting rams to Nigeria is costly. We have to pay through our nose,” he said.
Also, the killing of some ram sellers from Ibadan was believed to have affected the supply of commodities.
It will be recalled that some ram sellers from Ibadan were killed in Ibadan where they had gone for the purchase of rams.