The National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) said families of victims of the 2015 hajj crane crash and Mina stampede in Saudi Arabia were yet to receive compensation promised by the Saudi authorities.
Chairman of the commission, Alhaji Abdullahi Mohammed, made this known on Monday in Abuja at the House of Representatives’ investigative hearing on the role of NAHCON in the operation of the 2015 hajj.
Mohammed, however, said that the commission was working hard to ensure that the families of the over 300 Nigerians that died in the incidents and 12 other, who were injured received the compensation as promised.
“Nigeria has not received the one million Saudi Riyal, and 500 Saudi Riyal promised as compensation for the dead and the injured, respectively. “We are working on it and as soon as we receive the money, we will forward them to the families of the victims,’’ Mohammed said.
He denied reports that the deceased received mass burial. “This is far from the truth, there was no mass burial as each victim of the stampede was buried in his own grave marked and identified.
“Also, the stampede did not occur as a result of the movement of Nigeria’s tent or as a result of the movement of VIPs as erroneously conceived,’’ he added.
Mohammed advocated for more training to strengthen the capacity of officials handling crowd during hajj. “Officials involved in the management should be multilingual so that they will be able to communicate with people of different nationalities and ensure more efficient crowd management,’’ he said.
The NAHCOM chairman further said that modalities had been put in place to guard against Nigerians participating in hajj from becoming casualties in case of any stampede in future.
He said that the commission had adopted a more robust reorientation programmes for pilgrims at state and local government levels. “Virtually all the state and local government officials have been engaging pilgrims in education on possible areas of danger and ways to avert them.
“The commission is also working with the Ministry of Health to establish a blood bank to be used in DNA profiling in case of any emergency. “We also have to sensitize the state officials on the need for probing the pilgrims’ movement to avoid crowd areas and to observe the timing given to us by the relevant authorities.
“We will introduce an electronic device that will help us in the management and tracking of pilgrims’ location at all times,’’ Mohammed stated.
The departure for this year’s Hajj has been fixed for August 8 will the Zamfara’s state pilgrims taking off in Sokoto.
