A total of 44,617 Nigerians that performed this year’s hajj in Saudi Arabia have been airlifted in 117 flights back to their respective homes in Nigeria as at this evening. This is even as it has been confirmed that 145 Nigerians lost their lives at the Jamrat stampede on September 24, which also claimed prominent personalities, including the former editor of the New Nigerian Newspaper, Hajiya Bilkisu Yusuf.
It has also been confirmed by the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) in Jeddah that 165 other Nigerians are yet to be accounted for in the search for the survivors of the stampede.
According to the Commissioner in charge of Planning, Research, Statistics, Information and Library Service (PRSILS) of the NAHCON, Dr. Saleh Okenwa, those that have been declared missing are not regarded as dead, because, he said, their corpses have not been identified even as there are ongoing efforts to locate them or identify their remains among the dead.”
Dr. Okenwa spoke to news men along with top management of the commission, and the Chargé d’Affaires Nigerian Embassy in Riyadh, Ambassador Tijjani Hammanjoda, as well as the Nigerian Consul General to Saudi Arabia, Ambassador Ahmed Umar.
Also, Chairman, Medical Committee of the commission, Dr. Ibrahim Kana, said that autopsies were being carried out on some of the corpses to ascertain the cause of their deaths and that some of the families of those that died had received the death certificates of their relations.
Meanwhile, the airlift of the pilgrims back to Nigeria has been going on rapidly. Only yesterday, no fewer than seven trips were made by the various airlines participating in the airlift.
They are Medview, MaxAir, Flynas, Top brass and Kabo airlines. [myad]