99 Nigerians died, 215 missing in Mecca tragedy – NAHCON

The National Hajj Commission of Nigeria has confirmed that 99 Nigerian pilgrims died, 42 injured and 214 others missing in the September 24 stampede in Mina, Saudi Arabia.

The confirmation came as a road traffic expert, Alhaji Babatunde Adewumi, suggested that NAHCON should engage the services of trained and qualified traffic controllers to help in the management of crowd in subsequent Hajj exercise.

The agency’s Commissioner (Planning, Research, Statistic Information and Library Service), Dr. Saleh Okenwa, gave the clarification in an interview with journalists on Thursday in Makkah, Saudi Arabia.

According to him, the total number of Nigerians affected in the incident was 355 as of the time of filling this report.

Okenwa, however, insisted that those missing could not be declared dead, since identification of those affected were still being collated by the Saudi Arabia health authorities in conjunction with Nigerian and other nations’ health officials.

He also gave the breakdown of the victims as 73 deaths from the state pilgrims welfare boards, agencies and commissions, while the remaining 26 were from the tour operators.

“Those injured were 42, 41 from the state pilgrims and one from tour operators. The number of those missing from the states was 96 males, 94 females and four males who were officials, totaling 194, while 10 males and 10 females were missing from the tour operators.

“Of those injured, only seven remain in the hospitals and receiving treatments and others have been discharged,” Okenwa said.

Meanwhile, wife of the President, Hajiya Aisha Buhari, and the Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha, have condoled with the Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal, the people and government of the state over the stampede which claimed lives of Sokoto pilgrims in Saudi Arabia last month.

A statement issued by the spokesman for the Sokoto State Governor, Mallam Imam Imam, said the two personalities expressed sadness over the unfortunate incident and prayed to God to bless the souls of the deceased.

The statement said while the President’s wife sent a letter and delegation to commiserate with the state government, Okorocha led a delegation of Imo State officials to meet with Tambuwal in on Wednesday.