Bayelsa pilgrims board seeks more personnel for hajj operation

THE Bayelsa State Muslim Pilgrims Welfare Board has appealed to the state government to deploy more personnel to the board to ease its operations.

The board’s Executive Secretary, Amirah Dokubo-Asari, who made the appeal in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), said there are just two people managing hajj operation under the board.

Dokubo-Asari spoke on the sideline of the post-Arafat meeting organised by the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) in Makkah.

She said the lack of adequate hands at the board had made managing hajj operation in the state extremely taxing.

Dokubo-Asari said: ”At the Bayelsa State Muslim Pilgrims Welfare Board, the problem is that we are understaffed. We have just two people who do this operation, myself and my chairman, and it is really hectic.

“We have to work always; we don’t have helping hands; we have to make sure everybody is safe. So, it is really tiring sometimes.

“We have been doing it and we will continue to do it, but I would like the state government to actually deploy some Muslim civil servants to help us with the hajj operations so that they can lighten the weight of the job that we do here.

“Hajj operation isn’t made for just two people. Basically, the load is really too much and we will surely need some helping hands.”

She described the 2023 hajj operation as very smooth for the state’s pilgrims.

“The only challenge we faced is the weather in Saudi Arabia, which is really very hot and makes people get very tired,” Dokubo-Asari noted.

On the accommodation arrangement in Mina, she said that although the tents were congested, all pilgrims from Bayelsa State were accommodated.