By Abiola Olawale
The Chairman of the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON), Jalal Arabi, and the commission’s Secretary, Abdullahi Kontagora, are reportedly being held in custody by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over alleged mismanagement of N90 billion disbursed by the Federal government as subsidy to the 2024 Hajj scheme.
Arabi and Kontagora, among other officials of the NAHCON, had been on the radar of the EFCC following allegations that the N90 billion subsidy granted by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for the 2024 Muslim pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia was mismanaged.
In a document purportedly from the EFCC, the NAHCON Chairman and secretary were grilled on Wednesday over their knowledge of and involvement in the fraudulent deals.
According to the document, the EFCC investigation revealed that Arabi allegedly overpaid himself and others the necessary operational cost.
The NAHCON boss was alleged to have paid himself a total of SR50,000 (Saudi Riyal), instead of SR15,929.
During the investigation, the anti-graft also purportedly recovered a total of SR314,098 (Saudi Riyal) from the NAHCON Chairman and other ranking officials.
The purported documents read in part: “The Chairman fraudulently overpaid himself, the Commissioners, Secretary and Directors for the 2024 Hajj operational cost as the Chairman was entitled to SR15,929 but he got SR50,000; three commissioners who were meant to get SR15,929 each received SR40,000 each. The Secretary got SR 30,000 instead of SR14,336. Directors and the Chief of Staff received SR30,000 instead of the SR2,550 they were entitled to. A total of SR314,098 were recovered from all of them.”
An insider source who spoke with the press also revealed that the NAHCON Officials are yet to account for a total of SR8,614,175.27, which was allegedly withdrawn from the N90 billion released by the Federal Government.
It would be recalled that following the announcement of the approval of the N90bn Hajj Subsidy, complaints emerged from some pilgrims to the effect that despite the subsidy, arrangements for the welfare of Nigerian pilgrims fell below standards.
Also, Governor Mohammed Umar Bago of Niger State had specifically raised alarm over what he described as a shoddy arrangement and vowed to report NAHCON to the Governors’ Forum and the National Assembly.
