Abuja – Few days to the commencement of this year’s hajj, there are fears that thousands of Nigerian pilgrims may miss the exercise.
As of the time of filing this report, less than half of the 43,000 pilgrims from Nigeria had been airlifted.
According to the figure from NAHCON, 19,764 pilgrims have been airlifted from 23 states and the Armed Forces.
Kano and Kaduna State which have the highest number of pilgrims still have many of them awaiting airlift.
As of yesterday, 1,593 out of 2,491 Kaduna pilgrims had been airlifted; while in Kano, only 399 pilgrims of the 2,229 slots given to the state had been airlifted.
The Saudi authorities had said all pilgrims must arrive by July 3 at 23:59 pm.
About 3,000 pilgrims of licensed tour operators, who made deposits to the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) Treasury Single Account domiciled in the Central Bank of Nigeria, but whose accounts in Saudi Arabia were yet to be credited to enable them process their accommodation in Makkah and Madinah and pay for other services, may miss this year’s hajj.
Amidst this, NAHCON said the offer for additional slots promised Nigeria by the Saudi Arabia could no longer be actualised.
Some hajj operators said that after paying about N1.3m for onward transfer to Saudi Arabia service providers, they were yet to receive payment in their virtual accounts in Saudi Arabia.
Of the 43,008 slots given to Nigeria by Saudi Arabia, 9,032 were allocated to licensed tour operators under the aegis of Association of Hajj and Umrah Operators of Nigeria.
From the figure, 50 seats were given to 176 prequalified operators who were required to pay N1.3m on each pilgrim for onward transfer to service providers (Muasassah) in Saudi Arabia.
The fund covers some components of the hajj fare, including hotel accommodation, feeding in Muna, Arafa and local transportation.
One of the affected tour operators said each of the tour operators remitted about N55m amounting to over N10bn.
He said when NAHCON eventually credited their account, 61 tour operators did not get alert, noting that without the money, visa processing and other arrangements cannot be carried out.
“As I’m talking to you, they’re still meeting, a lot of us have not been credited and the airports in Madinah and Makkah will be closed this week.
“Two of our members collapsed as a result of this; while others were hospitalized as a result of high blood pressure and fear of running into debt because most operators are already missing their flights because we booked scheduled flights and when we want to change the flight we pay as much as N200,000 on one person,” he said.
A meeting was ongoing as of press time yesterday; while an official of NAHCON said the issue of the remittance was being resolved.
Many intending pilgrims on Tuesday protested in Kano over the non-allocation of seats to them despite having completed their payments.
They were at the head office of Jaiz Bank which processed their payment through the Hajj Savings Scheme and the office of the Kano State Pilgrims Board.
The protesters, numbering 284, said they were shocked to find out that after completing their payment, no seat was reserved for them, noting that some of them started the saving scheme in 2019.
The leader of the protesters, Hassan Zakari, alleged that the state pilgrims’ board had not been forthcoming with them.
Sources said that names of aggrieved intending pilgrims had been sent to the state pilgrims’ board and had been documented without any allocation to them this year because of the limited slots allocated to them.
Fatima Abdullahi of Tamburawa area of Dawakin Kudu Local Government, said she was told to return her bag and uniform Monday evening.
Reacting, the Executive Secretary of Kano Pilgrim’s Board, Mohammad Abba Dambatta, said the board was doing all it could to resolve the problem, noting that there was no allocation this year for those on savings’ scheme, especially those from Jaiz Bank.
“We received a total of 2,229 allocation and we have about 2,500 intending pilgrims under the hajj savings scheme which is more than the total allocation given to us,” he said.
Meanwhile, NAHCON has confirmed that its request for additional slots from Saudi Arabia had been turned down.
Its spokesperson, Fatima Sanda Usara, in a statement, said NAHCON’s Commissioner of Operations, Abdullahi Magaji Hardawa led a delegation to actualize the offer, but it was eventually turned down by the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah.
She said the request to have some of the officials above 65 years to travel because of their experience in hajj operation was also not granted.
According to her, Nigeria’s hajj industry is left with its initial allocation of 43,008.
She said NAHCON solicited the understanding of those aggrieved.(Daily Trust/vitalnewsngr.com)
