Hajj: Nasarawa gov bans nonresidents from state’s slots

Governor Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State has warned the Muslims Welfare Pilgrims Board to henceforth desist from allowing people who are not from the state to use the state as a platform to travel to Saudi Arabia for the holy pilgrimage.

 He gave the warning while receiving the 2023 Hajj Report from the state Amir-ul-Hajj, Justice Aisha Bashir Aliyu, who is also the Chief Judge of the state, at the Government House, Lafia on Monday.

 He said it was “Totally unacceptable and unfair” to allow people from other states to use Nasarawa State as a platform to perform Hajj when the state government was expending huge amounts of money as subsidy for the pilgrims.

 He, however, stated that henceforth, one hundred per cent of the pilgrims must be residents of Nasarawa State.

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 Presenting the report before Engineer Sule, the Amir-ul-Hajj, Justice Aisha, raised concern over the deliberate flouting of the law banning pregnant women from going on pilgrimage, stressing that five heavily pregnant women from the state went on Hajj this year.

 According to her, two of the women delivered safely while the remaining three suffered miscarriage and that, but for the efforts of the executive secretary of the board, Saudi Arabia authorities would have sanctioned Nasarawa State.