The Nigerian Christian Pilgrims Commission (NCPC) will airlift 10,000 Christians for this year’s holy pilgrimage to Jordan, starting on December 22.
Each pilgrim paid N3 million for the journey, amounting to a total of N30 billion from the Nigerian contingent. According to the NCPC’s Executive Secretary, Bishop Stephen Adegbite, the pilgrimage will last 10 days and include visits to holy sites in Jordan and Turkey.
This marks the first pilgrimage of 2024 after several delays. Earlier plans for the President’s wife, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume, to lead the contingent in March were revised.
In November, the NCPC announced the airlift schedule for December, following a series of postponements earlier in the year. The Easter pilgrimage to Israel and Jordan, initially planned for March, was canceled. In April, the commission assured stakeholders that the pilgrimage would commence in June, emphasizing Israel’s safety as a destination.
By May, the cost of the Easter pilgrimage was reviewed from N3 million to N4.8 million, but no official start date was set. Despite these challenges, Adegbite reaffirmed in October that the pilgrimage would occur before the year’s end, stating that the main pilgrimage season usually extends from November to February.
The December pilgrimage has now been confirmed, with 10,000 participants set to embark on a spiritual journey to Jordan and Turkey before returning to Nigeria.
