280 PILGRIMS FROM ENUGU STATE DEPART FOR HOLY LANDS AS NCPC CAUTIOUS AGAINST ABSCONDMENT

CHRISTIAN NWANGENE

Two hundred and eighty intending Christian Pilgrims from Enugu State have been airlifted to the Holylands of Israel and Jordan from Akanu-Ibiam International Airport, Enugu.

The Executive Secretary, Nigerian Christian Pilgrim Commission, (NCPC), the Rev. Yakubu Pam, who was at the airport to address the intending pilgrims, admonished them to be good ambassadors of Nigeria while in the Holy land.

The Rev. Pam maintained that the agency was concerned about the image of Nigeria during pilgrimage and as such, the intending pilgrims should conduct themselves decently during the spiritual exercise.

He cautioned them against abscondment as the Commission had put every mechanism in place to make abscondment impossible.

The NCPC Executive Secretary said pilgrimage was not a mere tourism activity or site seeing, but a serious spiritual duty, noting that part of the reasons the country had remained intact were the prayers and cries of Nigerians in Holylands.

For his part, the Enugu State Governor, Chief Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, charged the pilgrims to show decorum while in the holy land and be focused as they would be taken through all that happened, before, during and after the life of Lord Jesus Christ.

Chief Ugwuanyi commended the organisers for recording zero abscondment during the 2022 pilgrimage, urging them to ensure that all the pilgrims returned safely.

The intending pilgrims would arrive in Jordan first where they would commence their Pilgrimage.

Afterwards, they would proceed to Israel to continue their visit to the Holy Sites there.

The airlift of intending pilgrims of Enugu State was the second to be conducted by NCPC for the Easter pilgrimage to Israel and Jordan.

The first batch departed for the Holy land on December 16, 2022 and returned on December 24 without any single case of abscondment.

EDITED BY CHUKWUBUIKE MADU