The airlift of the Nigerian pilgrims for the 2016 hajj rites in Saudi Arabia is scheduled to begin on August 8 from the Sultan Abubakar Airport in Sokoto state.
The Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’ad Abubakar, represented by the Etsu Nupe, Alhaji Yahya Abubakar, dropped this hint on Saturday in Abuja at a one day meeting of all bodies involved in the Hajj exercise at the National Mosque Abuja.
The Sultan said that intending pilgrims from Zamfara state will be the first flight to be airlifted.
He called on all intending pilgrims to pray for peaceful coexistence and advised them to “take seriously the recent ban placed on kola nut by the Saudi Arabian authorities.”
Speaking earlier, the Chairman of the National Hajj Commission (NAHCON), Abdullahi Mukhtar, said the commission has concluded arrangements to put in place a blood bank for Nigerian pilgrims in Saudi Arabia.
Thousands of pilgrims lost their lives at a stampede in Mina last year, but Mukhtar said that the Saudi authorities have assured that “adequate measures have been taken to avoid a recurrence of the ugly incident”.
The NAHCON boss said that the Saudi authorities have banned the distribution of all enlightenment materials to pilgrims in the Kingdom.
”All enlightenment materials should only be given to Nigerian pilgrims before they depart from the shores of the nation.” [myad]
