Ibraheem Musa
18 November 2008
Kaduna — Barring any hitch, Kaduna state pilgrims will be airlifted tomorrow as all officials of the state Pilgrims' welfare board are expected to arrive the Mando Hajj camp to-day, the board's Public Relations Officer, Malam Ishaq Ibrahim Ja'e said yesterday.
In an interview with Daily Trust in his office, the spokesman absolved the state's pilgrims' welfare board of blame in the delay of lifting intending pilgrims to Saudi Arabia, an exer-cise which should have commen-ced last week Wednesday.
According to him, it is not sta-tes' pilgrims' boards that deter-mine when pilgrims are to be airlifted but the National Hajj Commission, adding that Kadu-na is one out of 10 other airlift centres across the country.
Malam Ishaq said that the de-lay in conveying intending pilg-rims to the holy land is general and that it is not perculiar to Ka-duna state alone. Part of the prob-lem, the PRO further said, was that Melview and Meridian airlines did not bring any plane when the exercise commenced in Maidu-guri, Gombe and other airlifting centres. Kabo was left virtually alone to handle the airlift, he said.
However, both Meridian and Melview airlines have brought planes, Malam Ishaq Ja'e further said, in addition to the ones that Alhaji Dahiru Mangal, a Katsina based businessman has charte-red. When Daily Trust visited the Hajj camp at Mando, the place was bereft of its usual hustle and bustle during the Hajj period.
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