The Commissioner for Information, Library Research and Statistics, National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON), Dr Saleh Okenwa, has disclosed that 274 Nigerian pilgrims have been confirmed dead in the tragic Hajj stampede in Mina, Saudi Arabia during this year’s Hajj pilgrimage.
Okenwa told journalists in Abuja on Monday at a press conference for update on the September 24 stampede in the holy land that 44 other Nigerian pilgrims are still missing while two were injured in the incident.
The 2015 Hajj witnessed a crane accident which occurred at Saudi Grand Mosque on Friday, September 11 and a stampede which occurred nearly a fortnight later on September 24.
According to the NAHCON commissioner, the two tragic accidents during the pilgrimage occurred despite efforts by both Saudi authorities and Nigerian Hajj officials to make the exercise hitch-free.
He said the tragedies should be accepted as the will of Almighty God, praying that Allah would “accept the victims of the tragedies as martyrs and grant their families and loved ones the fortitude to bear the loss.”
Okenwa said that the commission has been working since the occurrence of the stampede to get all relevant and accurate information regarding the details of the Nigerian victims, adding that the commission constituted several committees charged with the responsibility of handling issues arising from the Hajj tragedies.
Okenwa further said, “In cases where the corpses were mutilated, fingerprint analysis matching with entry data in the Saudi Immigration Service” were used in identifying the victims.
He added, “In extreme cases where the bodies were mutilated beyond fingerprint analysis, direct relatives of the victims who also came for Hajj were required to provide blood samples in the hospital.”
The NAHCON commissioner added that dead victims were buried in numbered graves, adding that despite all the efforts made, there were cases where the bodies were unidentifiable and relatives of the victims were not available in Saudi Arabia for DNA provision. In such cases, the dead bodies were buried on the directives of the Saudi authorities, in line with avoidance of health hazards to the living.
Concerning missing pilgrims who could not be confirmed dead because there was no certified evidence of their identities, he said, “Nigeria recorded 44 of such cases, hence the need for DNA of the relatives of the missing pilgrims.”
-Leadership