CITY NEWS NGO warns Abuja 2018 Hajj: FCT Muslim Pilgrims Welfare residents against Board begins collection of deposit bush burning
A non-governmental organisation, Foundation for Economic Empowerment and Educational Development (FEED), has warned FCT residents against indiscriminate bush burning to forestall unintentional destruction of property.
Executive Director of FEED, Mr Kelvin Dzeremo, gave the advice, yesterday, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.
He said some residents usually engaged in indiscriminate bush burning during the dry season, adding that such practice had often resulted in wanton destruction of lives and property.
He noted that some rural dwellers, who were purportedly hunters, had wreaked havoc on many farms, lives and property on a yearly basis through bush burning; in the name of hunting.
The executive director said bush burning even destroyed soil fertility, adding that the development could thwart efforts to boost agricultural production in the country.
Dzeremo underscored the need for government, its agencies and other relevant stakeholders to sensitise the citizens to the dangers of bush burning.
“The public sensitisation effort should particularly target people in the rural areas to enable them to fully understand the consequences of bush burning on the ecosystem.
“It will also help to enlighten the people on the potential threats of bush burning to the people’s livelihoods and properties,’’ he said. (NAN)
The FCT Muslim Pilgrims Welfare Board has commenced the registration of intending pilgrims for the 2018 Hajj exercise across the six area councils of the territory.
A statement from the board’s spokesman, Muhammad Lawal Aliyu, said intending pilgrims who wished to perform the pilgrimage through the board are to present a bank draft of a minimum of N1,000,000 (one million naira) only payable to the FCT Muslim Pilgrims Welfare Board, Abuja and their international passports to book for a seat pending the release of the Hajj fare by the Federal Government.
The spokesman also said that the board would not entertain payment by proxy while old timers are to pay an additional two thousand Saudi Riyals (SR2000) for the exercise.
He said all intending pilgrims must be guaranteed by the chief imam of their area council, the traditional ruler or a senior civil servant of not less than GL12 as contained in the guidelines for the registration of 2018 intending pilgrims by the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON).
In addition, according to Lawal, female intending pilgrims would only be registered with their male guide (Mahram) in line with the Saudi Arabian government regulations.
Meanwhile, the area councils’ structure of the board is to be reshuffled to ensure efficiency, proficiency and safeguard against fraud in this year’s hajj exercise.
The Acting Director of the board, Alhaji Shehu Abubakar, disclosed this at the opening of an in-house training for area officers of the board for the registration of the 2018 intending pilgrims.
Abubakar said the measure became necessary to ensure transparency in the registration for the 2018 Hajj exercise and to ensure that intending pilgrims from the territory got the best service in the history of the operation in the FCT.