No Nigerian pilgrim is stranded — NAHCON
The National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) has said no Nigerian intending pilgrim has been left stranded back home. A national daily (not Daily Trust) reported Saturday that over 17, 000 intending pilgrims have been left in Nigeria. The commission earlier said over 55,000 Nigerian pilgrims are scheduled to perform this year’s Hajj, comprising 20,000 […]
The National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) has said no Nigerian intending pilgrim has been left stranded back home.
A national daily (not Daily Trust) reported Saturday that over 17, 000 intending pilgrims have been left in Nigeria.
The commission earlier said over 55,000 Nigerian pilgrims are scheduled to perform this year’s Hajj, comprising 20,000 tour operators pilgrims, and the remaining over 35,000 from states.
Speaking to journalists in Makkah at the sideline of the Pre-Arafat meeting of 2018 Hajj, the NAHCON commissioner of operations, Abdullahi Saleh Modibbo, said that report was fake news.
The commissioner who is in charge of pilgrims airlift, said over 38,000 pilgrims who registered through the states pilgrims welfare boards were all brought to Saudi Arabia.
He said all state pilgrims were brought to Saudi Arabia before the commission’s top management staff and others eventually joined them in Makkah on Friday.
A representative of the Association of Tour Operators of Nigeria (AHOUN), Abubakar Siddeeq Mohammed, said the news is just a figment of the imagination of writers of the story.
He said almost all the 18,000 pilgrims who registered through AHOUN have been transported to Saudi Arabia, while the remaining few still in Nigeria are already on their way Saturday evening.
In his opening remarks, Chairman and Chief Executive of NAHCON, Abdullahi Mukhtar Muhammad, said during the Pre-Arafat meeting in Makkah, that the last flight of pilgrims from Nigeria left around 3pm on Saturday, and arrived in Makkah around 5:40pm Saudi time.
The NAHCON chairman said the last flight carrying pilgrims of tour operators from Kano state, landed in Jeddah with 15 empty seats.
This is contrary to the national daily’s report that about 5000 Nigerians pilgrims were left stranded at the Malam Aminu Kano International Airport in Kano.