Over 200 intending pilgrims protest in Ilorin
By Mosunmola Ayobami, Ilorin
About 200 intending pilgrims protested in Ilorin on Friday.
The intending pilgrims from Kwara protested at the llorin Airport over the inability of an aircraft to airlift them to Saudi Arabia.
The pilgrims, officials of the State Pilgrims Welfare Board and the 2024 state Amirul Hajj boarded the aircraft Thursday but the aircraft reportedly developed a technical fault.
Some engineers with the Federal Airport Authority were said to have made frantic efforts to repair the faulty aircraft without success.
Consequently, some of the intending pilgrims staged a protest over the development.
The intending pilgrims, alongside their relations, protested on the highway linking the airport with other communities to express their displeasure over the situation.
The protesters were the last batch from the state.
Senator Ibrahim Oloriegbe, the state’s 2024 Amirul Hajj, while speaking to newsmen attributed the failure to transport the last batch of the pilgrims to faulty aircraft.
Oloriegbe said the intending pilgrims had boarded the aircraft since Thursday but could not be transported following the development.
The Amirul hajj added that another aircraft is being expected from Medinah to transport the intending pilgrims and the officials.
He appealed to them to exercise patience, as the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria was on top of the situation.
He said that the board would continue to cater for the feeding of the intending pilgrims pending when they would be transported to the holy land
