The National Hajj Commission of Nigeria, NAHCON, Zonal Coordinator, Kaduna Zone, Alhaji Yusuf Balele Wali, has expressed satisfaction with the conduct of pilgrims and officials lifted from the Kaduna International Airport to the holy land for this year’s Hajj.
The Coordinator also applauded the airlift operation which he said, had a poor start at the onset, but later picked up and ended up in a resounding success.
He said he was delighted that no untoward incident recorded among the pilgrims, neither at the Hajj Camp at Mando, nor at the Airport.
Alhaji Yusuf Balele said it was heartwarming that inspite of the large number of pilgrims this year, about thrice the number last year, the outward journey was smoothly and successfully carried out, though a rescue operation had to be initiated when the Airline Company contracted to airlift pilgrims from the Zone could not meet up, due to lack of capacity and failure to meet up with its contractual agreement of deploying at least three capacity aircrafts for the entire phases of the exercise.
He expressed confidence that the return journey would also be hitch free, smooth and within stipulated time.
On issue of contraband, he said, though no serious incident recorded, nonetheless the few minute incidences, show that pilgrims welfare boards, agencies and commissions need to intensify their education and enlightenment efforts in recording zero incidents in subsequent Hajj operations.
