Lagos State Christian Pilgrims Welfare Board, on Tuesday, started the Administrative/Medical Screening for intending pilgrims.
This is part of activities preceding the air-lifting of intending pilgrims to the Holy Land of Jerusalem and Jordan later in 2023.
According to a release issued on the state government’s website on Thursday, the screening exercise which was held at the Chapel of Christ The Light, Alausa, Ikeja, was in collaboration with the National Christian Pilgrims Commission and other relevant agencies of government in charge of verifying travelling documents.
The Board Secretary of LSCPWB, Mrs. Yetunde Gbafe, stated that the administrative part of the screening exercise was organised to validate the travel documents of the intending pilgrims in order to know if the intending pilgrims are qualified for the journey.
Speaking on the Medical aspect of the screening, she said, “We want our pilgrims to be fit, hale and healthy. We want to go to the Holy Land and return will all our pilgrims, without any record of pilgrims’ abscondment or death”.
She, however, implored the intending pilgrims to give accurate and sincere information about their health status to the medical personnel, this, according to her, will afford the State Government to make adequate preparation to cater for the medical needs of the intending pilgrims.
The Board Secretary also harped on the need for the intending pilgrims to be spiritually upright, prepare their minds for the pilgrimage journey and avoid any form of distraction or divided attention when the exercise commences.
The Representative of NCPC, Mr. Frank Chukwura, while speaking at the screening venue, pleaded with the pilgrims to show the attributes of true believers and avoid all forms of discrepancies in the information they have provided.
He said, “Absolute sincerity is all that is needed and it is my hope that all the intending pilgrims at this screening exercise will ultimately make the journey to the Holy Land because the more pilgrims that embark on this journey with us, the better.”
As part of the screening process, different medical screening was carried out, the International Passports of the intending pilgrims were properly verified, and information contained in the bio-data form filled by the intending pilgrims was cross-checked.
