A total of 1,957 intending pilgrims would be airlifted from Kwara State to Saudi Arabia for this year's pilgrimage.

This number excludes ten officials from the state Muslim Pilgrims Welfare Board that would be accompanying the pilgrims to the holy land.

To this end, the outbreak of the dread Ebola virus, which had since attracted global attention owing to its possible spread, would not affect pilgrims from the state.

In an interview with newsmen in Ilorin at a special prayer organised for the state governor, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed, Senator Bukola Saraki and other political appointees in the state, the Executive Secretary, state Muslim Pilgrims Welfare Board, Hajia Fatimah Abolore Jimoh, said the board was eighty five per cent ready for the airlift of the pilgrims.

She said the agency had also met with the management of the state Ministry of Health and the state Primary Health care Agency with a resolution to be thorough in the medical screening of intending pilgrims as preventive measures for the spread of the deadly ebola disease.

According to her, major health facilities in the state had been penciled down for the screening which commences on Monday.

Hajia Jimoh said backlog of last years' pilgrims were being exempted in other screening processes employed by the board while others had retrieved their pilgrimage fund.

The Executive Secretary urged the prospective pilgrims to conduct themselves properly before, during and after the pilgrimage.Adding that "We are about 85 per cent prepared now. In terms of Mekkah and Medinah accommodation, we are ready. We have made the choice of carrier; all payment had been effected and all pilgrims had started enlightenment. The only thing we are awaiting is for our plane to arrive and take us to the holy land.

"For this year, we have the total number of 1,957 pilgrims and 10 officials.

"Our hands are on deck on the outbreak of ebola virus. You can see throughout the country; the federal, state and local governments are putting all necessary machinery in motion and our state government is not excluded from this.

"We have met the state Commissioner for Health who directed us to the Executive Chairman of the state Primary Health care board in conjunction with the Permanent Secretary of the ministry and they have assured us that we are going to be more thorough than we used to be especially with the suspicious ebola virus.

"In actual fact, all the medical screening even those we don't do before like Hepatitis B and Ebola, we are going to do them with involvement of the newly remodeled General Hospitals, Cottage Hospitals and Sobi Specialist Hospital".