Leadership
(Abuja)
News Agency of Nigeria
8 October 2008
Niger State Pilgrims Welfare Board has disqualified 23 pregnant women from performing this year's Hajj.
Alhaji Isah Ndagi-Man, the board's Chairman, made this known in Minna.
Ndagi-Man said that the pregnant women were part of the intending pilgrims who were barred from performing the pilgrimage due to health factors.
"The figure represented less than two per cent of the 5,000 intending pilgrims from Niger State and we want to strictly adhere to Saudi Arabia's guidelines regarding persons who are eligible to perform the Hajj," he said.
Ndagi-Man, however, assured prospective pilgrims, who had been cleared during the screening, that they would all participate in this year's pilgrimage.
He said that efforts had been intensified to get the National Hajj Commission to make available the balance of 670 seats, which the board had applied for, to enable it to meet its target of facilitating the pilgrimage of 5,000 persons from the state.
He urged the intending pilgrims to disregard the rumour that the board intended to drop some of them and substitute them with persons who had not paid for the pilgrimage before the closing date.
Ndagi-Man said that the board had made adequate arrangements for the airlifting of the prospective pilgrims that would commence on Nov. 4.
He disclosed that Meridian Airlines had been contracted to airlift pilgrims from the state this year because of the wide passenger-capacity of its aircraft.(NAN)
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