Ben Agande
6 January 2009
Lagos — At least ten Nigerian pilgrims who embarked on the 2008 pilgrimage to the muslim"s holy city of Mecca are still in different hospitals in the holy land receiving treatment for various ailments.
The National Chairman of the Hajj Commission, Alhaji Mohammed Musa Bello told journalists after the last batch of pilgrims were flown into Abuja in the early hours of yesterday that those remaining are those who were involved in auto accidents as well as those who took ill during the exercise.
He said government through relevant agencies has taken adequate and necessary steps to ensure that those left behind are adequately catered for and their hospital bill taken care of.
Speaking on the demonstration by some Nigerian pilgrims in the holy land, the national Hajj commission boss blamed poor screening of pilgrims by some state pilgrims board for the embarrassing protests saying that the commission would take measures to ensure that only people spiritually prepared embark on the pilgrimage in the future.
According to him, investigations by various security agencies indicated that the demonstration had nothing to do with the processes of the hajj but mischief of the organizers of the protests pointing out that those who protested did not know the essence of the pilgrimage.
"Any genuine Muslim who set out for the pilgrimage knowing the full essence of the exercise would not embark on a protest. We have since discovered that the screening process in some states were faulty.
But after the protest, the relevant agencies investigated and discovered that it was not necessary."
Appropriate measures are being taken to ensure that such incidence does not happen again" he said.
Some of the measures being contemplated, he explained, were the establishment of a Bio Metric Data to ensure that records of all pilgrims are better kept and a stricter screening of intending pilgrims in order to differentiate between genuine pilgrims and those with other motives.
Assessing last year"s pilgrims, the chairman of the commission hailed it as a huge success saying the commission was able to beat the deadline for the airlift of all pilgrims to the holy land by two days while the deadline for the return of all pilgrims from the holy land was also met.
Earlier in his remarks, the deputy amir Hajj and Emir of Suleja, Mallam Awwal Ibrahim attributed the success of this year"s hajj to the leadership provided by the Amir Hajj, the speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Dimeji Bankole and the support from the federal government, adding that the success achieved must be improved upon during subsequent exercise
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