Akinjide charges stakeholders to intensify vigilance at Hajj camps

By Stanley Onyekwere

As preparations for this year’s Hajj operations step up, the minister of state for the Federal Capital Territory (FCT),Oloye Olajumoke Akinjide, has urged stakeholders and other officials to ensure adequate vigilance and enlightenment at all camps and offices.

She said security should be beefed-up and adequate measures employed at all camps, venues and offices used for Hajj preparation, this year and beyond.

According to her; “the present security challenge bedeviling our nation calls for vigilance and collective approach.”

The minister gave the urge yesterday, during the annual zonal workshop on Pilgrims’ Education and Orientation, held at FCT permanent Hajj Camp, in Basan Jiwa, Abuja.

Represented by the Chief Imam of Abuja National Mosque andChairman, FCT Muslim Pilgrims Welfare Board (MPWB), Ustaz Musa Mohammed, the minister said stakeholders should also intensify prayers at all available gathering for peace to reign once again.

Akinjide, who declared the workshop open, said its outcome will play a critical role in the successful outcome of the 2014 Hajj and beyond.

She also used the occasion to reiterate the call on the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON), to consider increasing the annual seats allocation to FCT during the 2015 Hajj exercise.

Similarly, the Director General, National Orientation Agency (NOA), who was represented at the event by Mallam Balarabe Gambo, urged officials to ensure that all pilgrims are enlightened on all the relevant rules and guidelines, on performance of pilgrimage.

He however urged pilgrims and intending ones to do the right thing and be good ambassadors of Nigeria in the Holy land (Saudi Arabia).

Earlier in her welcome address, Director, FCT MPWB, Hajiya Fatima Sulaiman Gummi, said the workshop would positively impact on the intending pilgrims’ moral and spiritual alertness towards achieving a hitch-free 2014 Hajj.

She noted that the Board had already conducted its first phase of the education and orientation exercise at the six FCT area councils, adding that two more rounds would be conducted before the commencement of airlift.

“The outcome of this workshop therefore, is expected to provide a blue-print on how to address those challenges towards a holistic transformation of the Hajj industry,” she stressed.

Peoples Daily reports that the workshop organised and hosted by the FCT MPWB, in conjunction with NAHCON,  had participants drawn from intending pilgrims, state delegates of Kwara, Kogi, Plateau Niger and Nasarawa states,  as well as other stakeholders from Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) and Customs as participants.