The Chairman of the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria ,NAHCON, Malam Jalal Arabi, would be grilled by operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission ,EFCC, at the commission’s headquarters located in Jabi.
Daily Intel Newspaper gathered that NAHCON boss is expected to arrive the commission today following an invitation extended to him.
Source familiar with the matter said he would be explaining to the EFCC how he expended N90 billon subsidy provided for 2024 exercise.
He is also expected to explain how NAHCON shared thousands of dollars allocated to it for the pilgrims.
Daily Trust reports that the anti-graft agency would be quizzing the NAHCON boss over a series of petitions against him as well as the maltreatment of pilgrims in Saudi Arabia during the 2024 exercise.
An EFCC source said “We’re doing our job as prescribed in law without minding whose ox is gored. In the EFCC, nothing concerns us with religion or tribe, what is important for us is to tame financial crimes and other fraudulent activities in our society.
“As of now, NAHCON chairman has been invited, he will meet our crack detectives to provide explanations on some issues that border on financial transactions,”
Earlier on Monday, Arabi told journalists at a press briefing that every pilgrim that paid for the 2024 Hajj through the government quota was supported with the sum of N1.6 million due to the instability of the naira.
According to him, following the depreciation of the nation’s currency occasioned by foreign exchange reform of the Central Bank of Nigeria, payments earlier made by intending pilgrims became inadequate.
He noted that the commission approached the federal government for assistance to approve a concessionary exchange rate of N850/$1 for intending pilgrims.
The NAHCON boss, however, said instead, the president approved a N90 billion intervention to assist the pilgrims and that NAHCON used it to assist the pilgrims.
Feeling dissatisfied how the fund was managed, Niger State governor, Mohammed Umaru Bago, called for the scrapping of NAHCON.
Bago’s disappointment stemmed from the inadequate space given to Tent A pilgrims from Nigeria, which included some state governors who came for the pilgrimage as well as the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Abbas Tajudeen.
