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2023 Hajj: Stakeholders disagree with NAHCON over slashing of Nigerian pilgrims’ days in Madinah

Published

1 year ago

June 13, 2023

Chairman, National Hajj Commission of Nigeria, NAHCON, Alhaji Zikrullah Kunle Hassan

2023 Hajj: Stakeholders disagree with NAHCON over slashing of Nigerian pilgrims’ days in Madinah

Hajj and Umrah stakeholders have refuted claims by the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria, NAHCON, that the 2023 hajj is the first time that all Nigerian pilgrims are visiting Madinah before Arafat.

Recall that the Hajj commission had introduced a new policy restricting pilgrims’ stay in Madinah to 5 days, saying that the decision was aimed at giving Nigerian pilgrims the opportunity to visit Madina in the first phase or before Arafat.

The commission, in a statement by its Deputy Director (Information and Publications), Mousa Ubandawaki, noted that such an opportunity is the first time in a long history of the Hajj exercise in the country.

But while speaking with DAILY NIGERIAN on Sunday, a tour operator based in Abuja, Rabiu Mohammed, disclosed that records have shown that Nigerian pilgrims in the past visited Madinah before Arafat.

He said: “Previous official hajj reports submitted to the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF) by NAHCON indicated that during 2015 hajj, 92 percent of Nigerian pilgrims had visited Madinah before Arafat. In 2016, all the Nigerian pilgrims (100 percent) had visited Madinah before Arafat.

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“Also, 99 percent of Nigerian pilgrims visited Madinah in 2017 before moving to Makkah for hajj, while in 2018, only 83 percent of the pilgrims visited Madinah before hajj. In 2019, 98 percent of Nigerian contingents to hajj visited Madinah before Arafat.

“In all these five years – 2015 to 2019 – all the pilgrims spent their full eight days in Madinah, unlike in 2023 where the commission had to slash it to five.”

Speaking on the complaint of overcrowding of Nigerian pilgrims in the City of Madinah, another Hajj and Umrah stakeholder, Aminu Salisu, disagreed with NAHCON, saying that that “overcrowding” in Madinah could never be the factor for the slashing of the Madinah days to five.

According to him, the actual reasons for the slashing of the Madinah days included NAHCON’s alleged delay in processing Nigerian pilgrims’ accommodation at the airport due to the non-availability of bed spaces.

Other factors, he said, are “mismanagement of bed spaces leading to pilgrims staying up to four hours inside buses in front of hotels, thereby disrupting the buses cycle of transporting pilgrims of other countries on schedule; and sending Nigerian pilgrims to wrong hotels causing confusion and traffic gridlock around the hotel areas”.

Mr Salisu said: “It is worthy of note that because of these aforementioned reasons, the Saudi Ministry of Hajj had queried NAHCON three times, and summoned its officials in Madinah to explain this unprecedented anomaly.

“Also, pilgrims from at least three flights were accommodated in low-budget accommodations outside the highbrow Markaziyya which they paid for, thereby triggering protests and complaints from them.

“It was also established that Saudi authorities never dictate to visiting pilgrims the number of days they spend in Madinah.

“The idea of reducing the number of days in Madinah was conceived in one of the meetings when it became apparent that NAHCON’s handling of Nigerian pilgrims in Madinah was capable of disrupting the entire hajj ecosystem in Islam’s second holiest city.”

2023 Hajj: Stakeholders disagree with NAHCON over slashing of Nigerian pilgrims’ days in Madinah

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BREAKING: FEC proposes N47.9 trillion budget for 2025 fiscal year

Published

13 hours ago

November 14, 2024

Trends Admin

BREAKING: FEC proposes N47.9 trillion budget for 2025 fiscal year

The federal government has unveiled a proposed budget of N47.9 trillion for the 2025 fiscal year.

Atiku Bagudu, Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, disclosed this to journalists on Thursday following the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting chaired by President Bola Tinubu.

Bagudu revealed that the council had approved the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) for 2025-2027.

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According to the minister, the government has pegged the crude oil benchmark at $75 per barrel, with an oil production target of 2.06 million barrels per day (bpd).

The budget also sets the exchange rate at N1,400 per dollar and aims for a gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate of 6.4%.

BREAKING: FEC proposes N47.9 trillion budget for 2025 fiscal year

metro

EFCC arrests ex-NCMB boss over $35m energy project fraud

Published

14 hours ago

November 14, 2024

Trends Admin

EFCC arrests ex-NCMB boss over $35m energy project fraud

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) told FIJ that they have arrested Timber Wabote, the former executive secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCMB), on the grounds of a failed $35 million Bayelsa refinery project fraud.

Dele Oyewale, the EFCC’s spokesperson, confirmed this to FIJ on Thursday.

“It is true,” Oyewale responded to FIJ’s inquiries.

Wabote is accused of misappropriating public funds for a refinery project that should have improved local energy production.

Vanguard reported that the NCDMB under Wabote paid $35 million to support the development of energy infrastructure in the Brass Local Government Area of Bayelsa, yet there was nothing to show for it.

The EFCC picked Wabote up following the arrest of Akintoye Adeoye Akindele, the Managing Director of Atlantic International Refinery and Petrochemical Limited, for alleged misappropriation, money laundering and diversion of $35 million in public funds.

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“NCDMB under the watch of Wabote allegedly paid the $35 million to Akindele to build a 2,000 barrel per day (BPD), refinery, jetty, gas plant, power plant, data centre and tank farm at Brass free trade zone (FTZ), Okpoama Community in Brass LGA of Bayelsa State,” a source with the EFCC had explained.

Since December 2020 when the payments were made, Akindele abandoned the project with little or nothing to show for the huge sum he received.

Preliminary investigations showed that Wabote’s NCDMB financed 17 different projects, including the 2,000 BPD refinery in Brass LGA.

There has been a series of public fund misappropriation cases in the energy sector in recent times.

FIJ earlier reported that members of the House of Representatives summoned three ministers to defend how over $2 billion was spent on renewable energy with not much to show for it.

A recent FIJ report also recently detailed how residents of Yenagoa, the capital of Bayelsa, have not had power in their homes since July due to the vandalisation of the Ahoada-Yenagoa transmission towers caused by unidentified persons.

The Bayelsa state government told FIJ it was the federal government’s responsibility to provide electricity for residents. The state has no renewable energy options reliable enough to power its capital despite the multi-million-dollar NCMB energy project.

Transparency in the energy sector has become necessary at a time when Nigerians have suffered power instability due to frequent grid collapses.

EFCC arrests ex-NCMB boss over $35m energy project fraud

metro

Court adjourns Yahaya Bello’s trial till Nov 27

Published

14 hours ago

November 14, 2024

Trends Admin

Yahaya Bello

Court adjourns Yahaya Bello’s trial till Nov 27

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has requested an adjournment in the new case against the immediate past Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, stating that the 30-day window for the previously issued summons is still active.

The commission has granted administrative bail to his co-defendants, Umar Oricha and Abdulsalami Hudu, and asked the court for an extension of time for Bello to appear.

At the resumed hearing before Justice Maryann Anenih of the Federal Capital Territory High Court, Abuja, EFCC Counsel Jamiu Agoro noted that the court’s order from October 3rd had not yet expired.

“In that wise, we feel it will not be appropriate for us to take proceedings while that 30 days is still running. So we have discussed and agreed to come back on the 27th day of November, 2024, my lord,” he told the court.

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He also mentioned that the previously set date of November 20th was not convenient for the prosecution counsels.

Counsel to the second defendant, Aliyu Saiki, SAN, confirmed that his client had been granted administrative bail by the prosecution and had no objection to the adjournment request. The third defendant’s counsel, ZE Abass, concurred.

The prosecution counsel also requested the court to allow the notice of hearing to be pasted on the last known address of the first defendant.

After hearing from all counsels, the judge granted the EFCC’s application for adjournment and the issuance of the hearing notice.

“I have considered the application for adjournment by the complainant and issuance of hearing notice and the submission by the second and third defendants. The application is granted,” she said.

Justice Anenih then adjourned the case to November 27th for arraignment.

The former governor, alongside Umar Oricha and Abdulsalami Hudu, are being prosecuted as 1st to 3rd defendants, respectively, in a fresh 16-count charge instituted against them by the EFCC.