Controversy rocks NAHCON over alleged N95.7bn fraud

There is controversy at the National Hajj Commission over the alleged mismanagement and withholding of about N95.75bn as the Association for Hajj and Umrah Operators of Nigeria has called for a probe of the commission.

Various allegations including the syphoning of President Bola Tinubu’s N90bn intervention funds given to the commission to cushion the effect of the high dollar-to-naira rate during the 2024 hajj operation, to the maltreatment of both regular and high-profile Nigerian pilgrims, and the withholding of the agents’ N2.75bn initial deposits to the commission, have been levelled against NAHCON.

Other allegations include the withholding of N1bn belonging to 200 agents as their initial deposits during the 2023 hajj operations and syphoning of the N1bn service charge taken from each pilgrim also put at over N2bn, without a commensurate service delivery, all constituted the reasons for AHOUN’s face off with the commission.

The agents called for a probe of the commission for effective operations.

The allegations against the commission made stakeholders intensify the call for the unbundling of NAHCON, as they stressed that it should be a regulatory body and not an operator.

This outcry against NAHCON and its Chairman, Jalal Arabi, made the Economic Financial Crime Commission quiz the commission’s boss last week.

The PUNCH gathered that the EFCC grilled the chairman of the commission over alleged mismanagement of the 2024 Hajj exercise fund.

An insider at the EFCC who does not want her name in print due to lack of authorisation to speak on the matter confirmed that Arabi was at EFCC to answer questions on how the commission spent the N90bn subsidy meant for the exercise.

Expressing his frustration with the commission, AHOUN National President, Abdullateef Ekundayo, in a conversation with our correspondent, explained that the actions of NAHCON were threatening agents’ integrity and affecting their business.

He called on the Federal Government to urgently intervene in the matter and ensure appropriate restructuring at the commission.

Ekundayo said,  “What happened was that the hajj commission does request our members to make a refundable deposit of N5m before we start the year’s hajj operation.

This money is to show the financial capacity to take part in the hajj operation for the year, but last year they changed it to N25m for each operator.

“And we complained because what was supposed to be needed was a bank guarantee but they insisted on cash and our members went ahead to deposit N25m each.

“Despite that, all the other monies we needed to send to our account in Saudi Arabia must be paid through NAHCON, that is the Saudi government rule, we always pay to NAHCON’s dedicated account at the central bank but the commission will not transfer our money on time.

“In most cases when we pay this money it always takes time for them to move it to our Saudi Arabia account. They would have finished with conventional/local pilgrims before they would start attending to international pilgrims. Now that we have finished hajj, we expect that they ought to have paid back our money, our N25m back to each company but up until now, they haven’t refunded us.”

On efforts made to secure the refund of the individual N25m deposits, Ekundayo stated that after several efforts by his members, the commission requested each person to write a letter for the down payment.

“They also insisted on a verification exercise which was to be done in person. After our complaints, they said we should write and come to Abuja for reconciliation before our money can be released to us.

“We have directed our members to write, but our money has still not come out. And expectedly, it shouldn’t require more than three weeks for them to refund our money but this time it’s been over two months and they are yet to refund our money.”

Other members who spoke with our correspondent further stated that high-level fraud had been going on at the commission.

Repeated calls to the spokesperson of NAHCON, Fatimah Usara, were neither answered nor returned. A text message was also sent to him on the matter, but it got no response.