The airlift of the 1,300 Muslim pilgrims from Plateau to Saudi Arabia is to begin on Thursday, September 18, an official said in Jos.

The Executive Secretary of the Plateau Muslim Pilgrims Welfare Board, Alhaji Salisu Musa, told the News Agency of Nigeria in Jos that the pilgrims would be lifted in segments.

Musa said the state government was sponsoring 200 intending pilgrims, while the 17 local government councils in the state had jointly sponsored 100 persons.

The airlift of the 1,300 Muslim pilgrims from Plateau to Saudi Arabia is to begin on Thursday, September 18, an official said in Jos.

The Executive Secretary of the Plateau Muslim Pilgrims Welfare Board, Alhaji Salisu Musa, told the News Agency of Nigeria in Jos that the pilgrims would be lifted in segments.

Musa said the state government was sponsoring 200 intending pilgrims, while the 17 local government councils in the state had jointly sponsored 100 persons.

“The board has divided the pilgrims into four segment and the first three segments will be airlifted to Saudi Arabia from Kaduna Airport on Thursday.

“Then, the last batch of 300 pilgrims will leave Nigeria for Saudi on Friday,” he said.

Musa said the state contingent would land in Medina airport as against the tradition of taking them to Jeddah.

He called on the intending pilgrims to be law abiding while in the holy land.

“I will particularly advise the intending pilgrims to obey instructions and carry only 35kg of luggage as allowed by the airline.

“The pilgrims should avoid carrying excess luggage because Saudi Airline will not allow that,” he said

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Hajj: Plateau begins pilgrims’ airlift Thursday, says Official