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Bauchi Governor, Senator Mohammed shakes with his Deputy, Hon. Auwal Jatau at the airport
By Akanji Alowoludo, Bauchi
Bauchi State Governor, Senator Bala Mohammed has said that arrangements have being concluded for the commencement of the airlift of the state’s pilgrims from Jedda back to Bauchi through the Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa International Airport as from tomorrow, Sunday.
The Governor made the declaration on Saturday while fielding questions from journalists at the Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa International Airport, shortly after returning from the spiritual journey.
He also expressed satisfaction with conduct of the State contingents in the just concluded Hajj exercise at the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The Governor further applauded the efforts of the National Haji Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) and the State Pilgrims Welfare Board in handling the affairs of the pilgrims from the State and National levels.
Mohammed however said that while in the holy land, he interacted with the state contingents at different fora and provided them with Sallah gifts to enable them settle some of their bills before returning home.
Mohammed who described the exercise as a huge success so far, said that, “However, we have issues of responsibility by the NAHCON which has taken over the responsibilities of healthcare services of the pilgrims both at Mecca, Medina and Arafat.”
Bauchi State Governor, Senator Bala Mohammed fielding questions from journalists
According to him, “That has not given the pilgrims the best of healthcare services. Healthcare services, especially primary and secondary is the responsibilities of the state and I think that we have to sit down and discuss that again.”
The Governor stressed that, “because we cannot be looking away when our pilgrims are not given the best of the care services required, they have to be taken to designated facilities for attention where we have doctors and nurses to attend to them.
“Again, the issue of camping at Muna, the Hajj Ministry of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has made some clarifications, there are some misdemeanours on the part of the international carriers that are taking there pilgrims to our own tents and so on, we want to ensure that this does not happen again.”
He said that, “Alhamdulillahi for the successful 2023 pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia. I got back to Abuja since last week. While in Mecca, we made sure that we oversaw and supervised the welfare of our pilgrims in terms of transportation, accommodation, feeding, health and otherwise.”
The Governor said that,”We have been able to give them good leadership and our pilgrims welfare board has done tremendously well. The accommodation was excellent and the food was also good, it was so far so good.”
He, then assured of the commitment of his administration to sustain the support of pilgrimage and general welfare of pilgrims.
According to him, “The exercise was smooth and successful, all the pilgrims engaged in the spiritual and religious exercise as expected, they prayed for us to succeed. By the grace of God, we will ensure a hitch-free return of all the pilgrims.”
