Miss World shakes off the controversy and lands with a message: the pageant must go on

The remaining contestants in this year's Miss World pageant freshened up and resurfaced in London yesterday to insist the competition had nothing to do with the riots in Nigeria that left 215 people dead.

Despite the three days of violence, the 89 contestants, with the chairman of the Miss World competition, Julia Morley, denied responsibility and refused to accept that the decision to hold the contest in Nigeria had been a mistake.

In the face of fierce criticism for continuing the competition, Ms Morley pinned blame for the disturbances on the journalist whose article triggered the worst of the violence.

She dismissed suggestions that the contest should not be held in countries riven with internal strife. She likened holding the pageant in Nigeria – where one woman, Amina Lawal, had been sentenced to death by stoning for adultery by an Islamic court – with staging it in Britain during the IRA mainland bombing campaign.

At a hastily convened photocall at an airport hotel near Heathrow, Ms Morley accused her critics of treating the contest as a political football.

She said: "You can't say the journalists are responsible for a journalist's remark. It wasn't a mistake to go to Nigeria. What was a mistake was a journalist making a remark that he shouldn't have made."

She dismissed as "silly" suggestions that the pageant should be cancelled. She added: "Why should I cancel an event because a journalist makes a remark?" Asked if the organisers bore any responsibility for the violence, she replied: "I think everyone does if they are holding something on a worldwide scale. But if you are asking me, 'Did we do it?' the answer is no, we didn't. It isn't the fault of the girls or any of us."

Glenda Jackson, the Labour MP, led the criticism. She said: "The best thing to do after such fratricide and blood-letting is to cancel the whole competition."

The pageant had already been dogged by controversy, with campaigners calling for a boycott because of Amina Lawal's death sentence. The sentence is likely to be overturned at a future hearing.

Calm began to return to Nigeria's northern city of Kaduna yesterday with shops, schools and banks reopening.

The rioting broke out after ThisDay newspaper said the Prophet Mohamed would probably have chosen a wife from the contestants. Christians also attacked Muslims who objected to the contest on moral grounds. The Red Cross said more than 1,100 people were being treated in hospital.

The cancellation of the ceremony was a blow to the credibility of Nigeria's government, struggling to deal with the 12 of its 31 states that have declared sharia law.

The 215 deaths followed more than 10,000 who had died in religious or ethnic clashes in Nigeria since riots broke out in 2000, just after President Olusegun Obasanjo took power, ending 15 years of military rule.

The rushed departure of the Miss World circus from Nigeria meant no plans had been made to stage it in Britain and no venue had been arranged. Alexandra Palace and Wembley Arena were among those being considered for the 7 December event, which is due to be screened in 130 countries. Ms Morley said she would hold it in a tent in Hyde Park if necessary.

The contestants spoke with one voice yesterday, supporting the move to London but expressing disappointment at having to leave Nigeria.

Miss Nigeria, Ivy Ochuba, 19, a Christian from the eastern state of Anambra, said: "I don't believe the riots had anything to do with the pageant. People in the north just saw this as an excuse to start up something."

One of the few Muslims in the pageant, Azra Akin, 20, representing Turkey, said she regretted having to leave because the women were there to "do great things". She said she had highlighted the case of Amina Lawal during newspaper interviews in Nigeria. "I was there to support her," she said. "At home, I didn't think I could do anything."

Miss Canada, Lynsey Bennett, had flown home from Nigeria early. Back in Ottawa, she said: "As soon as I found out 105 people had already died due to the triggers of the Miss World, I said, 'You know what? This is not why I'm here. This isn't right. I'm going home'."