The second batch of 560 pilgrims from Kwara State that performed this year’s pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia has arrived safely in Ilorin, the state capital.
The Max Air that conveyed the pilgrims landed at the Ilorin International Airport at about 3.21 am on Friday.
Recall that the first batch of 533 pilgrims returned to Nigeria about three weeks ago and with the arrival of the second batch, 1,093 pilgrims from the state have so far returned home from the holy land.
The Chairman, Kwara State Muslims Pilgrims Welfare Board, Dr Abdulkadir Sambaki, said the remaining pilgrims from the state, who were still in Saudi Arabia, were in good health condition.
Sambaki added that the remaining 368 pilgrims had been scheduled to be airlifted back home between July 31 and 1st August, 2022
Two of the pilgrims who were part of the latest arrivals, Alhaji Mustapha Ibrahim and Alhaja Rukayat Yusuf, thanked God for the safe trip and prayed God to grant the remaining pilgrims safe trip back home.
Meanwhile, Kwara State 2022 Amirul Hajj to Saudi Arabia, Dr Awa Ibraheem, has appealed to the Federal Government to prioritise allocation of aviation fuel to the airlines involved in the airlifting of pilgrims, particularly those from Kwara State.
Ibraheem made the plea in a telephone interview from Saudi Arabia.
According to him, such immediate intervention of the government will ensure that Nigerian pilgrims are not stranded in Saudi Arabia after they have completed their Hajj rites.
The Amirul Hajj expressed concern over the delay in the airlift of pilgrims back home at the initial scheduled time, lamenting that most of them have exhausted their funds.
“The aviation fuel situation in Nigeria has been causing flights disruption. We hope and pray that the situation will soon be defeated,” Ibraheem added”.
Recently, the umbrella body for domestic airlines in the country, Airline Operators of Nigeria notified air transport passengers that the sector had been hit by a major crisis, an acute scarcity of aviation fuel which was expected to cause intermittent flight delays and cancellations
