Aisha Umar
18 November 2008
The Federal government has approved two carriers for this year's christian pilgrimage, the chairman of Nigeria Christian Pilgrims Commission (NCPC), Archbishop Nicolas Okoh said yesterday.
The two carriers include an Israeli airline, Travel Aviation and Tourism (TAT) , and a local one, Jupital Airline.
Archbishop Okoh announced the approval in Abuja while signing a memorandum of understanding with TAT. He said the agreement Jupital Airline would be signed with after other states have made payments for their pilgrims.
He said all states Christian pilgrims Board must make payments for their pilgrims before November 25, or else their pilgrims would miss this year's pilgrimage. He said the commission would ensure that the 2008 pilgrimage is carried out before the end of the year, to make budgeting and accounting easy.
The chairman said ten air carriers bided for pilgrimage and five were approved by Federal Government. However, only two carriers would be used for the airlift while the remaining three would be on stand standby in case the two carriers are not able to airlift pilgrims as scheduled.
He said the airlift of pilgrims would commence in the first week of December, he added that only eight states have made full payments for their pilgrims but they are working to airlift 16,000 to 20,000 pilgrims this year.
The chairman said the commission would screen pilgrims rigorously to ensure that only people with spiritual intensions to travel to Israel. He said pregnant women, sick people, non-Christians would not be allowed to travel while young people or students would only be allowed in the company of their parents.
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