No fewer than 150 intending pilgrims to this year’s hajj in Mecca, Saudi
Arabia were left stranded at the international wing of the Murtala
Muhammed Airport in Lagos following their inability to show evidence of
having secured a travel visa for the journey to the Holy Land.
It
was gathered that the pilgrims, mostly from Ogun, Osun and Oyo states
had been defrauded by a travel agent hired to secure travel visa,
airfares and accommodation for them while in Saudi Arabia.
The
pilgrims were expected to travel to Mecca last Friday with Qatar
Airways, but the trip was truncated following the failure of the travel
agent to show up with their passports and travel visas.
The agent
(name withheld) was believed to have raked in about N142.5million from
the 150 pilgrims as each of them was said to have paid N950, 000 for
visa processing, airfares and other logistics charges.
When Daily Sun
visited the airport, it was a pitiable sight as the intending pilgrims
had converted the departure hall of the international airport into their
sleeping apartment.
It was gathered that Jeddah Airport in Saudi
Arabia would officially close today, which means if they failed to
travel yesterday night or early today, their dreams of participating in
the 2013 hajj exercise to Mecca would have been defeated.
One of the
pilgrims, Mr. Abdulwasiu Adeyemi from Abeokuta in Ogun State, who spoke
to journalists, said they arrived at the airport as early as 7am last
Friday, but were yet to travel for the hajj in Mecca.
Adeyemi
said each of them paid the agent N950,000 for the visa, air ticket and
accommodation, but lamented that as at last Friday, some of them could
not lay hands on international passports containing their visa as the
agent failed to show up.
He said the passport was only given to him
and some others yesterday and that they were asked to pay additional
N280,000 for a return flight ticket for the exercise.
“I’ve never
had any business deal with this company (the travel agent). He told us
to be at the airport as early as 10am last Friday for our flight with
Qatar Airways and we complied, but unfortunately, our passport and visas
were not given to us by the agent as he claimed that they were not
ready then.”
Another affected pilgrim, Alhaja Muibat Arogunjo, lamented that the agent had turned her pilgrimage into a thing of sorrow .
Arogunjo
said she had spent all the money in her savings for the exercise and
could no longer cough out more funds for a new ticket. But a
representative of the agent at the Lagos airport, who declined to
mention his name, told journalists that the pilgrims were not defrauded
by the company.
“It is the delay in the return of their visas by
the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Nigeria that led to the inability of the
pilgrims to travel at the agreed date,” said the official.
Source: Daily Sun Newspaper
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