Hajj: Travel agents seek refund from NAHCON

Travel agents, under the umbrella of the Association of Hajj and Umura Operators of Nigeria, have called on the new Chairman of the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria, Professor Abdullahi Usman, to expedite action on the payment of his members’ seized money in the coffers of the commission.

The President of AHOUN, Abdullateef Ekundayo, urged the new NAHCON boss to facilitate the release of the money this week, if possible.

The association made this call at its Lagos zonal conference held in the Ojodu area of Lagos on Tuesday.

He called for the release of agents’ N25m individual funds paid as initial deposits to the coffers of the Central Bank of Nigeria on the order of NAHCON, before the 2024 Hajj exercise.

He added that the funds were over N2.74b.

He explained that another over N1bn belonging to 200 agents as their initial deposits during the 2023 hajj operations had also not been refunded.

Ekundayo said, “All our members are not happy because what NAHCON told us was that a maximum of three weeks after the year’s operation, that money will be refunded to us, but it is almost three months now that our N25m has not been paid. Aside from 2023, some of our members have had their money trapped with NAHCON since 2004.

“Each time they ask us for a deposit, it is always difficult to get that money back and that has been our challenge. So I believe the new chairman will build trust between NAHCON and the operators.

“We need our money as soon as we can get it. In fact, we want it this week if possible because they will soon ask us to start bringing money for the 2025 operations again. We need our money and we need it urgently.”

The allegation led to the sack of the former NAHCON chairman, Jalal Arabi.

It will be recalled that the ousted chairman was quizzed by both the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences over how the commission spent a N90b bailout fund given to the commission by President Bola Tinubu.

The EFCC, however, said it uncovered a multi-million-dollar fraud allegedly perpetrated by two top officials of the commission.

The anti-graft agency’s discoveries came from an extensive investigation into the suspicious use of funds allocated to NAHCON for Hajj operations over the years.

Speaking at the conference, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of AHUON, Abdulfatah Abdulmajeed, said his congratulatory message to the new chairman would be necessitated by his performance in his new duty.

He charged the new chairman to immediately get to work as Nigeria was already running behind schedule in preparation for the 2025 Hajj.

He said, “We can only pray, I don’t congratulate people when they give them a new assignment. What are we congratulating them for? We can only congratulate them after they have taken the assignment and performed well in their duties, that is when we can then say congratulations. What I can only wish for him is that may Allah ease the task for him.”