Kaduna State Pilgrims Welfare Board overseer, Imam Hussaini Tsoho, has said the state would begin enlightenment exercise for its intending pilgrims across 23 local Government Areas of the State.
According to him, despite low turnout of people coming to pay for the seats Kaduna still leads nationwide.
The overseer while fielding questions from newsmen on the level of preparation for 2018 Hajj exercise, said the low turnout of people coming to pay for seats was due to lack of money.
Imam said majority of the people are yet to harvest their farm produce.
He added that they delayed the enlightenment exercise due to low turnout of people making deposit.
He said: “Last year we started collecting deposit from intending pilgrims when farmers harvested their farm produce which was not the case this year.This year we started collecting 800,000 as deposit too early when farm produce are yet to be harvested. This is why we witnessed low turnout during registration but despite the low turnout Kaduna still leads in terms of people making deposit for 2018 hajj exercise.”
He said so far less than a thousand people had been registered for 2018 hajj even though the registration exercise was still ongoing and people were still coming to make their deposit before the closing date come March.
He urged those who had been registered to ensure they participate in the enlightenment exercise.
On the state dovernment decision to ban sponsorship of Hajj officials Imam Tsoho said: “ The government decision was in good faith because they see no reason why they will continue to sponsor people that will not add value to the pilgrims in the Holy land.”
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