Bishop Stephen Adegbite, Executive Secretary, Nigerian Christian Pilgrim Commission (NCPC), says he met a disorganised commission when he assumed office as head of the commission.
Adegbite, who said this at an interactive session with newsmen, to commemorate his first anniversary on Thursday in Abuja, described what he met on ground as `terrible`.
“ When I took over from my predecessor I knew I was going to face a terrible situation and that was probably the reason why I wanted to be the chairman of the board and not the Executive secretary.
“ So when I came in I saw the mess, we were in a state of melancholy, a lot of people had taken NCPC to court, our service providers, air carriers, ground handlers, Private Operators (CPOs), “ he said.
He said that before now, money would be collected without transporting pilgrims while the money would be nowhere to be found.
“The money was not in the NCPC account in the bank, we started on a minus zero because the amount we were looking for at that time was N3.8 billion , so how do we move forward with such a thing ?
Adegbite said that to avoid delays in transporting pilgrims the commission started paying service providers up to 80 per cent.
`Once we give them their money they will have no reason to mess us up during the pilgrimage.
He said that moving forward, he proceeded to reorganise the system by making critical changes in the various departments.
“We made changes and put the round pegs in the round holes and that moving forward, you must be dedicated and well versed in what you are doing,“ he said.
Adegbite said with the experience he had with pilgrimage for about 30 years, the commission was able to come out of the problems.
He said that a situation where service providers were being owed has become a thing of the past.
“Before now, they rendered services on credit, payment was a problem; instead of condemning us now, they are commending us. The Israeli government now has confidence in us,“ he said.
On staff welfare, he said that the commission has been able to boost the morale of staff by ensuring they participate in pilgrimage operations and their allowances paid.
“ We have been able to boost the morale of staff by ensuring they all go to pilgrimage and are paid their estacode. 187 staff members are going for pilgrimage and they will be paid their estacode.
“We extended a hand of fellowship to the media because they project our activities positively to the public,“he said.
He said that this year’s pilgrimage would take the commission to a higher ground, and the next one would be better than this.
Adegbite said the commission has zero tolerance on absconding, adding that it had three cases so far since its assumption of office.
“Since we started this operation in 2024, we have three cases so far, and we are expatriating some of them now, one ran away immediately he got to Israel.
“He went to the authorities and applied for asylum and he was asked if there was a problem in his country. He is back in Nigeria.
“We are working to bring the other two back to Nigeria.
According to Israeli law, they will be allowed to stay for three or six months, after that, they will be picked like fish back home anyway,’’ he said.
He advised intending pilgrims to be good ambassadors of the country when they get to the holy land, and to desist from absconding.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Adegbite took over from Rev. Yakubu Pam on February 5, 2024. (NAN)
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