By Mustapha Adamu
The Director General (DG) of Kano Pilgrims Welfare Board, Alhaji Laminu Rabi’u Danbaffa has said that all the 6,179 registered intending pilgrims allocated to the state has been airlifted to Saudi Arabia for this year’s Hajj.
Danbaffa stated this while granting interview to journalists at Arafat in Mina on Tuesday.
According to Danbaffa, among all the 6,179 registered intending pilgrims, no one was left out, adding that they had all been to Madina and completed their visitations before proceeding to Makkah for the commencement of Hajj exercise.
He said all the Kano contingents had been moved to Mina from Makkah on Monday, adding that they are now currently observing Arafat rites at Arafat.
He noted that the feet was recorded despite the fact that they took over the operation midway from the immediate past Executive Secretary.
“Glory be to Almighty God, all our 6,179, intending pilgrims had been airlifted. No one missed Hajj and they all arrived in Madina before proceeding to Makkah. They were all moved to Mina and are now currently observing Hajj rites in Arafat.
“All Kano pilgrims are in healthy condition and we have not recorded any death incident. All our pilgrims, when they fall sick, they get medical attention quickly and effectively.
“We haven’t recorded any incident of duping against our pilgrims. They are orderly and obedient,” he said.
Danbaffa commended the state’s pilgrims Center Officers, who according to him, are up and doing and serving the pilgrims diligently.
” Despite the fact that we took over the operation midway, we have recorded success but the success we have recorded has overwhelmed the challenges,” he said.
The Chairman of the board, Alh. Yusuf Lawal, in his part, said when they took over the operation, even though it was midway, they tried to see all the intending pilgrims were airlifted.
Hajj operation is not new to us. We have a know-how to it that is why, even as we met so many descripancies in the operation, we were not deterred from that. We continued to work until we achieved this success.
“We noticed the challenges. We will correct it in the next operation and where we need government intervention, we will intimate it to provide support to us.
“The support we have received from His Excellency, the Executive Governor of Kano state, is what helped us recorded this success,” he said.
In his remark, the Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Sanusi Bature Dawakin-Tofa, commended the Officials of the board for, despite inheriting challenges, were able to forge ahead and completed the operation successfully.
“The pilgrims from Kano were taken care of. We tried to make them feel at home and we achieved that. Any problem that arise, the DG is up and doing to solve it. He sometimes assigned me and the Chairman to tackle any issue that came up. We are happy and to sum it up, this year’s operation is a success,” he emphasized.
