Protest erupts at Kaduna hajj camp over Zamzam

Protest broke out on Wednesday at the Kaduna state pilgrims camp over alleged diversion of Zamzam water meant for the returnee pilgrims.
A quick intervention of the men of the Nigerian Customs Service saved the day.
Zamzam water is from the Zamzam well located within the grand mosque in Makkah, Saudi Arabia. Our correspondent reports that the plane that returned the pilgrims to Kaduna landed with about 620 gallons of Zamzam, but a senior official of the hajj commission attempted to divert 500 gallons to his house.

One of the pilgrims from Sabon Gari local government area, Barrister Muhammad Saminu Abubakar, explained that trouble began when the pick-up carrying the 500 gallons attempted to leave the camp.
“About 300 of us returned at about 3am today (Wednesday). The arrangement was that no pilgrim was allowed to carry Zamzam into the plane, because on arrival every one of us would be given five-litres (one gallon) of the holy water. Our plane landed with 620 gallons, but a senior official of the hajj commission ordered his men on ground here to divert 500 gallons to his house. When the pilgrims got wind of that, protest began and the van carrying the 500 gallons was forcefully stopped by the protesting pilgrims,” Barrister Abubakar said.
He added; “everyone here is annoyed, because this is religious matter and yet some corrupt officials are attempting to cheat on the pilgrims as they did to our colleagues that returned before us. I think it is high time for both Kaduna state and the federal governments to look into the activities of hajj, as there are many official malpractices that they need to tackle.”
Assistant Comptroller of Customs in charge of Kaduna, Musa D, said nobody has right to move the Zamzam water out of the camp since it was meant for the pilgrims. He therefore supervised the offloading of the water for distribution.
Customs officer in-charge of the camp, ASP II Abubakar Zakari said; “though I am not permitted to talk to the press, but as you can see our intervention has saved the situation and the distribution is going on smoothly.”