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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Hajj: 3 Nigerian Pilgrims Die In Saudi Arabia

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Three out of the 76,000 pilgrims from Nigeria for the 2016 Hajj have been reported dead. The figure was released by the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria.

The Head of NAHCON’s Medical Team, Dr. Ibrahim Kana, confirmed this to all stakeholders during a pre-Arafat meeting held at Makkah.

Kana, who said two of the pilgrims died in Madinah and one in Makkah, revealed that his medical team was still conducting postmortem to know the cause of death.

He said one of the dead pilgrims died in his sleep, while no one knows the cause of death of the remaining two.

He attributed the low death rate this year to adequate preparation by NAHCON as over 400 medical personnel were mobilised to this year’s Hajj exercise.

Kana said the medical personnel have been distributed to all Nigerian camps to ensure prompt response to the medical needs of Nigerians.

To this end, he said NAHCON has procured three new ambulances and sufficient drugs that would complement what the Saudi Government had provided to take care of Nigerian pilgrims during the Arafat period.

He warned pilgrims not to indulge in moving about during sunny afternoons because of heat stroke in Makkah and Madinah due to hot temperature.

Kana advised pilgrims to feed well, eat fruits and take lot of water to cushion the effect of the heat and reduce the influx of sick pilgrims to the Medical Centre.

He decried the absence of medical history of pilgrims, saying that the wrist bands introduced by NAHCON this year, if properly implemented, would help in solving that problem.

In his briefing, Alhaji Adebayo Yusuf, the National Commissioner in charge of Policy, said there was no accident recorded during the stay of over 61,000 pilgrims in Madinah before they were moved to Makkah.
Yusuf added that NAHCON was able to transport 61,903 pilgrims to Madinah in record time in 151 flight operations.

Going down memory lane on the sad event that happened during the 2015 hajj exercise, the chairman of NAHCON, Alhaji Muhammad Abdullahi, openly wept uncontrollably on the death of over 317 Nigerian pilgrims.

While calling for prayers from the Islamic Scholars for the repose of the soul of the dead pilgrims and to forestall future occurrence, Abdullahi advised pilgrims to obey the laws of the land.

He said all arrangements had been made to have a hitch free hajj exercise in 2016, with a lot of modifications to ease the performance of hajj for pilgrims.

Abdullahi listed some of the challenges encountered by the commission to include electronic payment, Basic Travel Allowance, security breaches, wristbands, accommodation, transportation and baggage tracking.

He, however, said all the challenges had been sorted out.

He said any state pilgrims welfare board and tour operator who violates any Saudi law or NAHCON guidelines would be made to pay for those violations.

At the meeting were the appointed NSCIA leader of the 2016 hajj, Alhaji Yahya Abubakar, who is also the Etsu Nupe; the Senate and House of Representatives Committees on Foreign Affairs; the Nigerian Charge de Affairs in Saudi Arabia; and States and Tour operators.

Over three million pilgrims would perform this year hajj, starting from movement to Muna on Saturday, Arafat and Muzdalifa on Sunday and throwing stones at the devil (Jamrah) on Monday. (NAN)

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