The Saudi Arabia government is collaborating with the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) officials on the basis of logistic arrangements for the transportation of pilgrims throughout the major activities of Hajj rites which begin on Friday August 9 and end on Tuesday August 13, 2019
The Vice President, Transport Management Team, Abubakar Banamaa, said the meeting was necessary to strategise ahead of the journey and identify possible difficulties that should be addressed from the onset.
He said the logistics was for movement of pilgrims from Makkah to Mina, Mina to Arafah, Arafah to Musdalifah and from Musdalifah to Mina camp for this year Hajj excercise.
He assured the gathering of effective service delivery to help pilgrims perform the rituals with comfort if only the stakeholders key into the planned arrangements as discussed in todays meeting.
A demonstration of how pilgrims are expected to queue for boarding of buses in batches has been experimented by all the stakeholders while asking pilgrims to remain under their tents while their officials provide a number of pilgrims that would fill available buses at a time while moving from Arafat to Musdalifah.
He further led the team on a tour of the areas to acquaint them with the pre visit knowledge that would help in the proper planning in readiness for the challenges that may arise in between the movement of pilgrims from one point to another.
Abubakar, therefore, encouraged various state coordinators to carry out awareness initiatives to guide the worshipers in religious and organisational aspects of the exercise.
He appealed to the state officials to commence transportation of their Pilgrims very early to their various places in accordance to the designated date and allotted to them so as to avoid rowdiness and stampede
Meanwhile, the Saudi representative spoke Arabic language throughout the meeting but was rescued by NAHCON representative, Dr. Aliu Tanko, who translated the message in English, which eventually made the meeting effective.
