Strike: Hajj Pilgrims Stranded As Airlift Operations Halt
. Aircraft Forced To Return To Saudi Arabia Empty
. MURIC Calls For State Of Emergency
By Sulaimon Salau
Fate of thousands of Nigerian pilgrims for the 2024 Hajj exercise may have hung in the balance as the airlifting operation of the National Hajj Commission (NAHCON) has been halted by the striking members of the Organised Labour Union.
Slye News gathered that the pilgrims and their families are currently confused as the aircraft that was billed to convey the pilgrims was forced to return to Jedda airport empty.
Director, Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has, Professor Ishaq Akintola, has raised an SOS, calling on President Bola Tinubu to declare a state of emergency.
Akintola said a plane sent to airlift pilgrims from Nigeria to Saudi Arabia was turned back by striking aviation workers in Nigeria. The aircraft was forced to return to Jedda airport empty.
“Meanwhile, thousands of Nigerian pilgrims are now in danger while the airlift operation has already been halted. Thousands of Muslim pilgrims who have left their homes for the airports are now stranded.
“Nigerian Muslims are now asking NLC why it had to declare a national strike at a time more than 60,000 Nigerians are being airlifted. The families of these intending pilgrims are now in a high state of fear and anxiety.
“Apart from the confusion and hardship which the ongoing NLC strike constitutes to preparations being made by Muslim faithfuls for the Id al-Kabiir festival, the lives of Muslim pilgrims are now under palpable threat. Is this not sabotage? Is this not intentional? Can a national union of NLC calliber say it is unaware of Muslim preparations for hajj and Salah?
“We charge the NLC to call off its strike with immediate effect. We are not ready to gamble with the lives of thousands of Nigerian Muslims who are already in the pilgrim camps. This strike hits the most sensitive nerves in the anatomy of Nigerian Muslims. Call off the strike immediately or face the wrath of Nigerian Muslims nationwide.
“This is an emergency and it has to be handled with speed. The lives of more than 60,000 Muslim pilgrims are in danger and the Federal government must move to save them,” he said
Akintola added: “In case NLC fails to heed our appeal by 8 am tomorrow Tuesday, 4th June, 2024, we call on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to declare a state of emergency. It is already clear that recalcitrance is in the DNA of the present NLC leadership. Bureacratic norms of a democracy cannot cure the gangarene called NLC. Gangarenes are burned out with hot iron. They are not cured.”
