Date: 2017-01-04

The National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) has said it does not have any plan to ban pilgrims from flying from Ilorin International Airport for the 2017 hajj as it is being insinuated.

The commission only lamented ‘the porous nature of the airport’ which it said was making it susceptible to drug traffickers going to Saudi Arabia for hajj.

Recently, the Ilorin Emirate Descendant Progressive Union (IEDPU) during its annual convention appealed to the federal government not to stop flying of pilgrims from the Ilorin international airport but to find solution to any problem that might warrant that.

The Head of Corporate Affairs of the Commission, Hajia Fatimah Mustapha, who spoke in Ilorin during a courtesy visit to a former director of the commission when it was Directorate of Pilgrims Affairs, Ambassador Abdulkadir Imam, said, "There is no information that pilgrims will not be allowed to fly from Kwara state for 2017 Hajj.

The issue is that most of the challenges we had on issue of drug traffickers, we noticed are mostly from Kwara state. Most drug traffickers apprehended in Saudi are from Kwara.

I am not saying they are Kwara indigenes but they usually fly from Kwara.

We are suspecting maybe the Ilorin International Airport is porous, which is why it is so, maybe the drug traffickers connived with officials there, and maybe they do not have screening equipment or maybe they are too obsolete to detect those carrying drugs and other substances that are not to be carried along to Saudi Arabia."

Responding, the Imam thanked the commission for remembering him and prayed God to assist them in the task of hajj operation.