30th July, 2024
By Isaac Aregbesola
Malam Jalal Arabi, the Chairman of the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) was at the office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC to answer questions on how the commission spent the N90 billion subsidy for the 2024 Hajj exercise among others.
The invitation of Arabi by the anti-graft agency was based on petitions filed against him and the commission’s management over alleged fund mismanagement, especially during the 2024 hajj exercise, according to NAN.
Authoritative source from the commission said Arabi was at the anti-graft agency to provide detailed explanations on how NAHCON managed the fund allocated to it for the pilgrims.
“As of now, NAHCON chairman has been invited, he is already being interrogated by our crack detectives to provide explanations on some issues that borders on allegation of fund mismanagement in the commission.
“The investigation is ongoing; it is dated back to 2021, when the issue of fraud in the commission became messier.
“There is an ongoing investigation on alleged misappropriation of N200 million before now and some officials of the commission were invited for questioning.
According to the source, three directors from the commission have been invited to explain what they know about the issue.
‘’Now, the Chief Executive Officer has been invited to explain how the fund allocated to the commission is being spent.
‘”The investigation will continue until EFCC gets to the root of how the fund allocated to the commission was spent.”
According to the source, the chairman may not be detained in as much as there is a guarantee that he will make himself available when asked to do so.
“He may not be detained but will be asked to come back if the need be at the end of the day, but presently, he is still being interrogated.
‘’The CEO has been invited and he has honoured the invitation; he will go back, there is no reason to keep him in the custody when he is already cooperating.
‘’The new EFCC is operating in accordance with international best practices; you can see that most of the people invited are always allowed to go if they comply,” he said.
When contacted, the Spokesman for EFCC, Dele Oyewale, promised to revert to NAN correspondent over the invitation and other details.
Oyewale was yet to do so at the time of filing this report.
NAN reports that Arabi had at a news briefing on Monday, gave the breakdown of how the commission spent the N90 billion subsidy.
Arabi said that each pilgrim was supported with N1,637,369.87 from the N90 billion, except for pilgrims under the Hajj Savings Scheme (HSS), who enjoyed more.
”How to spread this N90 billion equitably, to such a degree that registered pilgrims would not have to pay additionally to the N4.9 million was tough.
“At first, the N90 billion would only cater conveniently for about 18,000 intending pilgrims out of the about 50,000 duly registered persons as at March 22, 2024.
“Subsequently, appreciation of the Naira to N1, 474.00 in the month of May 2024 brought respite to our calculations as it meant a reduction from what the registered pilgrims would have to top up,” he explained.
Recall that Gov. Umaru Bago of Niger had called for called of for the probe of N90 billion subsidy paid by the Federal government for the Hajj operations.
The governor said that in spite the subsidy, some states including Niger still paid some billions of naira for the exercise.
He alleged that pilgrims were given only 400 dollars to take care of themselves for about 40 days, in spite the payment of N8 million by each pilgrim.
Bago said that the N90 billion would have made more impact if shared to states.
(NAN)
