Tina Akannam
25 December 2008
Dutse — The Speaker, Jigawa State House of Assembly, Alhaji Adamu Ahmed has called on the federal government not to engage airline operators who do not have their private airlines in Hajj operations, saying the current delay being experience by pilgrims is because of insufficient aircrafts to airlift the pilgrims.
Speaker Ahmed who is the Amil Hajj of Jigawa State pilgrim this year, who confirmed this to newsmen shortly after returning from the Holy land with over 3,000 pilgrims. He said thousands of Nigerians pilgrims are stranded at the Saudi Arabian airport because the airline operators don't have planes to airlift the pilgrims.
Said he "Every year, Nigerians airline operators have the same problem of airlifting pilgrims back to the country because those engage to airlift pilgrims have to hire planes to carry out the operations at most time'.
He then called on the federal government and the relevant authorities to ensure that airline operators bidding to participate in Hajj operation have aircraft, and lamented that the pilgrims pass through a lot of stress waiting to be airlifted from Saudi Arabia to Nigeria .
Speaker Ahmed also confirmed that only two Jigawa Pilgrims died during this year's hajj operations against the speculations that there are many, explaining that one pilgrim suffered paralysis in Saudi Arabia and was taken to hospital but did not die..
According to him, one of those who died was a woman who was very sick and was hoping to go for medical treatment when she gets to the holy land but died in Kano, while the other died at Saudi Arabia after a brief illness.
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