BREAKING: Nigerian Pilgrims Stranded In Saudi Arabia, Cries Out For Help
Some Nigerian pilgrims from Katsina State on Friday accused the State Board of abandoning them in Mina, Saudi Arabia without providing them with accommodation.
In a video seen, the pilgrims were seen in their large numbers sleeping on the floor under a canopy in their religious wear.
One of them who identified himself as Usman Bello Daura lamented that the state authorities had failed to provide them with top-notch welfare packages despite paying over N8million for the ongoing hajj exercise.
He said: “Here are my colleague and this is our condition. This is where we are sleeping. We are facing very critical situation of accommodation and I am afraid because of a day like tomorrow (the day of Arafat) because this is the day everyone needs to do well as it is the most significant day of Hajj.
“We don’t want this kind of thing to happen tomorrow, which is the day of Arafat, because our leader didn’t do justice to us in terms of our welfare and accomodations.
“We have found ourselves in a situation that all of us are not happy about and we hope we get out of this situation before tomorrow (Arafat day).”
Another pilgrim mentioned that the situation was different from those from Borno state. He said pilgrims from Borno were well catered to by their authorities.
The pilgrim said, “I have seen the difference between pilgrims from Maiduguri and Katsina state because Maiduguri is where my father comes through and his accommodation and any other things are intact. But here the pilgrims from Katsina are abandoned and I try to find our representatives here in Saudi Arabia to complain to but I couldn’t find any of them.”
He continued: “Today they brought us to Mina and the authorities from Katsina state have been going up and down with us without providing us with proper places of accommodation.
“Please and I am pleading whosoever is responsible for our welfare in this holy land should please come out to hear us out.”
The pilgrims therefore demanded for the immediate intervention of the state government on their situation.
One of them said, “I want to draw attention of Mr governor to this critical issue we are facing here, I want to advise him to be careful in the kind of people he entrust with the responsibility of pilgrimage going forward. We are not happy here, we don’t have accommodation and we are left abandoned.”
Ibom Focus on Thursday reported how Nigeria lost two more pilgrims from Kwara State currently participating in the ongoing Hajj.
This was announced by the Kwara State Muslim Pilgrims Welfare Board, identifying the deceased as Salman Muhammad Alade and Ayishat Shuaib Ologele died after suffering brief illnesses.
Abdulsalam Abdulkadir, Executive Secretary of the Kwara State Pilgrims Welfare Board, extended his heartfelt condolences to the families of the deceased and asked Allah to comfort and pardon them.
Abdulkadir had previously declared Hajia Hawawu Muhammad’s death as “an unfortunate suicidal episode from the rooftop of her apartment in Madina.” He also said that the other pilgrim who died in Madina, Saliu Mohammed, died in an intensive care unit of a public hospital after unexpectedly falling ill.
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