A Lagos-based lawyer, Efunsola Coker, reacts to an alleged unfair treatment meted out to her by the Nigerian Christian Pilgrims Commission during a trip to Israel last year, reports GBENGA ADENIJI
The excitement of Miss Efunbola Coker, a lawyer knew no bounds last year when she considered embarking on a pilgrimage to Israel. Initially, her intention was to register with the Lagos State Pilgrims Welfare Board until, according to her, she learnt that the Federal Government is the ‘‘co-coordinator of the all pilgrimage exercises in the nation.’’
Thus, her plans changed and had to register with the Nigerian Christian Pilgrims Commission. But that decision, Coker noted, has left her with a bad experience because of what she described as the shoddy welfare the commission offered her group in Israel.
Narrating her ordeal to this correspondent, Coker said she started having troubles with the NCPC as soon as she bought the forms because she discovered that she was the one calling all the time to seek information that ordinarily should be available even on its website.
According to her, she paid the sum of N406,150.00 for the travel package and N108,750 equivalent of $750 for Traveller’s Allowance. Coker added that after unpleasant handling of matters by the commission, the group eventually left Nigeria for Israel on Saturday, November 10, 2012.
The lawyer explained that signs that the trip was not going to be eventful started manifesting when the group was lodged in what she called a rundown hotel in Galilee, which she named as Savyonei Hagalil. She further said the experience they had in Jerusalem was also terrible because, according to her, the hotel they stayed was worse than Savyonei Hagalil.
In a complaint dated November 30, 2012, sent via email to the Executive Secretary, NCPC, Mr. Kennedy Okpara, after she arrived and forwarded to our correspondent, Coker expressed her grievances about the trip.
She wrote, ‘‘We arrived Tel Aviv, Israel and travelled some two hours to our ‘motel’ in Galilee. I will never forget the words of my roommate, Mrs. Dupe Ojo, when someone announced, ‘This is the hotel’ and we looked at this place. I will never forget the feeling of despair that overwhelmed me as we walked into the reception. The place was filthy, for want of a better word. There were cats everywhere, including the reception, cuddling up on the dirty chairs, the wood floor was terribly dirty and the entire furniture and place were terribly unclean.’’
She also stated in the email that Israel was the 18th country she had travelled to, so she had a very good idea about holiday packages.
The letter read in part, ‘‘There were no less than five persons in my group who were over 70 years old and I cannot imagine the toll the stress had on them. I feel I have been robbed by NCPC, and should be grateful to receive by return explanation for the treatment we received. I do not understand why my life had to be endangered in Bethlehem because, as far as I am concerned, some people wanted to make money from us. It was this attitude that cost over 200 lives to be lost in the Dana air crash, causing families grief.
‘‘I called NCPC and spoke with a female member of staff who told me that pilgrimage is not about comfort. I know too well that I paid for comfort and NCPC collected money enough to provide me with just that. Again, if I paid to sleep on floors I would have. The lady told me the Legal Department of NCPC is waiting for my letter. I do not know exactly what that meant. She said I was the only one who complained and that some people had actually called to thank her.
“Now, I do not know of a culture where someone spends her hard-earned money, gives it to another in trust to provide certain services and the giver picks up a phone to thank a person she (the giver) has patronised!’’
Efforts made by our correspondent to get the reaction of the commission proved abortive as calls made to the mobile phone of the commission’s Head of Operation, Henry Ezike, rang out without him calling back. Besides, he did not reply the email and a text message sent to him.
But in a rejoinder to the same letter published on an online platform, titled ‘Rejoinder To Efunbola Coker- A Pilgrimage Is Not A Holiday’, purportedly written by the commission’s executive secretary, he said the state of things painted by the writer was false.
The writer added that the claim by the writer that she was entitled to a four or five star hotel was never made.
He also said members of the public should visit sites such as expedia.com or hotels.com to find out the rates for hotels in the Holy Land.
‘‘The writer complains that the tour plan forced them to visit Bethlehem and that she would have rather not visited Bethlehem because of the conflict in Gaza. First of all, who would conceive of going on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land without visiting Bethlehem, the birth place of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus? What then is the point of the pilgrimage?’’ The letter read.
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