Kaduna
The Independent Hajj Reporters, a civil society orgaisation, said centres for the newly-introduced compulsory data capturing of intending pilgrims should be established in all the 774 local governments across the country.
“About 80 – 85 per cent of pilgrims from Nigeria come from rural areas and are mostly farmers. To successfully capture the biometric data of all hajj pilgrims requires having data capture centres in all the 774 local governments,” a statement Monday by the civil society’s national coordinator, Ibrahim Muhammed and said.
It will be recalled that President Muhammadu Buhari raised concern recently over the hardship being faced by intending pilgrims over the new biometric policy when NAHCON Chairman, Barr Abdullahi Mukhtar, briefed him on the 2018 hajj, and the new policies introduced by the Saudi authorities.
The civil society said the Travel Agents Association of Pakistan, the umbrella body of travel agents in Pakistan, had earlier protested against Etimad (Private) Limited — a travel company in Pakistan, processing the biometric enrolment for Pakistani applicants for the same reason.
“The hajj and umrah tour operators in Nigeria also expressed their concern saying the policy has caused its intending pilgrims to various challenges,” it said.
The civil society said, “a large number of people who wanted to travel to Saudi Arabia to perform their religious ritual had been inconvenienced by the new policy as they had to spent days in Abuja, Kano or Lagos for their biometric verification, wasting precious time and resources.”
“Since only Kano, Abuja and Lagos have the data capture centres, we wonder how the three centres will cater for a country with 95, 000 hajj and over 1.5 million umrah pilgrims,” Independent Hajj Reporters said.
Independent Hajj Reporters said, “While we acknowledged the enormous security and logistics challenge faced by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in her quest to make hajj a memorable experience for pilgrims, we urge them to consider the implication of this policy on millions of Muslims who may be discouraged from fulfilling their fifth pillar of Islam.”
