The National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) has distributed monetary assistance to stranded Nigerian International pilgrims to ease their suffering in Saudi Arabia.

The pilgrims from different travel agencies were passengers of Skypower Express Airways.

The aggrieved stranded pilgrims who ran out of patience with their agents had stormed the NAHCON headquarters on Saturday night for assistance as they ran out of money to feed.

The Commissioner Operations, Alhaji Abdullahi Modibbo Saleh, and other top management staff of the commission visited the affected pilgrims to pacify them same Saturday around 2:00am Saudi time.

Saleh pledged that NAHCON will shoulder the responsibility of airlifting them back home if the air carrier failed to evacuate them by today, Monday.

Early Monday morning Saudi time, staff of NAHCON, under the instruction of the Chairman, Barrister Abdullahi Mukhtar Muhammad, were seen distributing 100 Saudi Riyals to each of the abandoned international pilgrims to feed for at least two days within which it is hoped that they would be airborne back to Nigeria to reunite with their families.

The plight of the affected pilgrims started when they became stranded at King AbdulAziz International Airport, Jeddah, on Wednesday, before their airlift to Kano on Friday morning.

They have cried out that their packages with their handlers were for between 16 and 21, but they have now exceeded 30 days without any definite date for their return. They however expressed gratitude to NAHCON for the financial assistance.

However, Managing Director of Skypower, Captain Mohammed Joji, while reacting to the news on Saturday in Kaduna, said the company never abandoned any passenger in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, explaining that they have one last flight from Jeddah to Kano on Tuesday.

“We never abandoned any passenger in KSA and we have only one flight remaining to Kano Nigeria on Tuesday, which is the last flight to Nigeria. All Hajj carriers have similar different kind of operational delay and challenges,” he insisted.

According to the Skypower MD, the report received from their representative in Jeddah indicated that Skypower aircraft coming from Lagos to Jeddah to pick the passengers as scheduled on 28/8/19 was scheduled to arrive Jeddah by 23:35, “but unfortunately due to fuel situation, it was delayed and the aircraft arrived Jeddah and picked the 274 passengers to Kano.”

He said that according to report available to him, “Some like Flynas has similar or even worse operational reason and took two aircraft load of over 1,000 passengers to the hotel on 26/8/19 and 27/8/19 for two days, was not reported.

“Another delay occurred again where same Abuja passengers were taken to the hotel by the same carrier and airlifted on Saturday, and it was not reported.”

•NAHCON officials distributing monetary assistance to stranded Nigerian pilgrims to ease their suffering in Saudi Arabia

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