Commission completes arrangement for 2014 hajj

Saturday, 23 August 2014

Commission completes arrangement for 2014 hajj

The National Hajj Commission of Nigeria on Saturday said that it had concluded arrangement for a hitch-free 2014 Hajj operations.

The National Chairman of the commission, Alhaji Muhammed Bello, made this known after a stakeholders meeting in Abuja.

Bello, who said the meeting was the final for 2014 exercise, thank God for granting participants journey mercies to Abuja to brainstorm on 2014 hajj.

“As you are all aware this year’s operation is supposed to commenced within the next few days and Alhamdulillah on our part we have done our best to commence the exercise,” he said.

He commended President Goodluck Jonathan for his continuous and tireless support to Hajj operation in the country.

“We have received tremendous cooperation from the president and thus making our job much easier because if we do not have the support of the government, we will not have gone this far.

“We have seen the benefit and progress made so far in hajj operation in our country. We have had smooth sailing in the last six to seven years since the commission came to be,” he said.

The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji sa’ad Abubakar, said that the problems confronting hajj operations in the country had been reduced by the commission with the help of the stakeholders.

Abubakar expressed confidence that the commission would in no distance time overcome any challenges facing hajj operations in the country.

“In a very short time, the issues facing the commission will be completely removed from government’s intervention.

“The commission will only be requesting for government to provide essentials to Nigerian pilgrims’ in area of security, medical, consular services, among others.

“This has been our hope in the last three years and we have requested the president to look into it so that we will be a bit independent of government,” the Sultan added.

He decried comments from some quarters that hajj was being sponsored by the government, adding that government was only performing its responsibility.

“We are not asking for too much, the government is only doing its own part of ensuring provision of needs to the citizens of this country,” he said.