Suleiman Muhammad Odapu
3 January 2009
The Executive Secretary of Kaduna State Muslims Pilgrims Welfare Board, Alhaji Abdullahi Mukhtar Muhammad has refuted reports that two thousand pilgrims from the state were stranded in Saudi Arabia, saying the report was completely false and unfounded.
Muhammad spoke to Weekly Trust on phone from Saudi Arabia, saying that as at 31st December 2008 only 78 pilgrims from Kaduna State were yet to be airlifted back home.
"As I am talking to you now, we have only 78 pilgrims and 70 officials from Kaduna in Saudi Arabia, and they are at the airport getting ready for airlift," he said. "78 pilgrims cannot be translated to 2000 pilgrims."
According to him, the official date of winding up the airlift of pilgrims back home is January 5th and as such any pilgrim yet to be airlifted could not be said to be stranded as officials were taken care of them. He said that but for some technical hitches, all the pilgrims would have been airlifted back home before January 1st 2009.
"If we were able to airlift 8000 pilgrims in nine days back home, we would surely airlift the remaining 78 pilgrims in a day," he assured. Some Pilgrims from the state had told newsmen that they were stranded at the King AbdulAzeez International Airport in Jeddah Saudi Arabia.
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