..To report for interrogation every Monday
BY ORIAKU IJELE & BARTH EZE
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has granted the detained Executive Chairman of the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON),Jalal Arabi, and Abdullahi Kontagora, the Commission’s Secretary, administrative bail over allegations of gross financial infractions in the ₦90 billion allocated for the 2024 Hajj subsidy. The suspects were granted administrative bail on Thursday, August, 2024, after spending three nights in EFCC custody.
However, they were asked to be reporting at the headquarters of the EFCC, every Monday, for continuation of interrogations, following more arrests of the some officials allegedly involved in the alleged fraud.
As of Friday morning, the suspects were still filling documents for the perfection of their bail conditions and if they meet the conditions may be released on or before Saturday.
On Wednesday, August 14, the EFCC was said to have recovered SR314, 098 from Arabi and other senior officials of NAHCON.
EFCC source revealed that the funds were part of fraudulent overpayments made from the subsidy fund. It was gathered that Arabi allegedly fraudulently overpaid himself, the commissioners, secretary, and directors for the 2024 Hajj operational cost.
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Saturday Times gathered that from the investigations carried out by the EFCC, the approved operational costs for key officials were grossly inflated. Our source said the chairman was entitled to SR15, 929, but he allegedly paid himself SR50, 000.
Also, about three commissioners who were entitled to SR15, 929, were allegedly paid SR40, 000, each, while the Secretary was paid SR30, 000 instead of the stipulated SR14, 336, and the directors/Chief of Staff received SR30, 000, far exceeding their entitlement of SR2, 550.
Our source claimed that the investigation into the financial spending of the Hajj subsidy fund started in July 29, 2024, when Arabi was invited and queried for hours before being released on bail.
Gov Bago had earlier called on the Federal Government to probe NAHCON over ₦90bn Hajj subsidy, and then the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) quizzed top NAHCON officials in connection with the alleged diversion of funds.
But presidency charged the EFCC to take a discreet investigation on the matter leading to the EFCC, to retake the case file and rearrested Arabi and Kontagora, on Wednesday for further questioning.
According to the anti-graft agency, the suspects inflated operational costs to a substantial sum of SR8, 614,175.27, which was withdrawn from the ₦90 billion Hajj subsidy, which remains unaccounted for.
According to our EFCC source, the Federal Government’s allocation was converted into U.S. dollars and subsequently transferred to NAHCON’s British SAAB account in Saudi Arabia. He said there were divergences in cash withdrawals, which is highly implicating and were made by one Abubakar Muhammed Lamin during the 2024 Hajj operation.
Our source also revealed that EFCC discovered other dubious financial activities from 2022 adding that these were payments made to staff who did not participate in authorized study tours and payments to Shuraka’a al-Khair Group Ltd for services that were never rendered.
According to the EFCC, it recovered estacodes paid to staff that did not travel and identified fraudulent consultancy fees amounting to SR1, 026,000.00 and SR1, 780,019.99 paid to Shuraka’a al-Khair Group Ltd. The EFCC investigations further revealed that these payments were made for debt recovery from the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah in Saudi Arabia.
EFCC, also said all supporting documents for the consultancy payments, including approvals from the Executive Chairman, were backdated to January 23, 2024, to legitimize the disbursement of SR780, 019.59 to Shuraka’a al-Khair Group Ltd on April 14, 2024.
Meanwhile, Arabi had confessed that the consultant did not render any services after collecting money. EFCC arrested Arabi’s based on the strength of the petitions filed against him and other officials to explain how his commission spent the N90bn subsidy provided for the 2024 hajj exercise.
Last month, in earlier post-Hajj press conference in Abuja, the NAHCON chairman had said the N90bn Hajj subsidy was transparently utilised.
“Each pilgrim was supported with N1, 637,369.87 from the N90bn except for pilgrims under the Hajj Savings Scheme who enjoyed more. Hence, all registered intending pilgrims, except those on HSS, were required to pay a balance of N1,918,094.87 since the N90bn was not sufficient to make up for the balance,” Arabi said.
Arabi’s trouble started in June, when the Niger State Governor, Mohammed Bago, called on the National Assembly to probe the N90bn released by the Federal Government to subsidies the 2024 Hajj pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia.
According to the governor, NAHCON’s performance was failure, adding that, “The N90bn subsidy paid by the Federal government for the Hajj operation, with some states, including Niger, paying about billions of naira; there is need for the National Assembly to probe the N90bn the Federal Government released for the 2024 Hajj. It is ridiculous that pilgrims were given only $400 to take care of themselves for about 40 days despite the payment of N8m by each pilgrim.
“The N90bn would have made more impact if shared with states. The money is enough to run the Universal Basic Education budget for four years.”
The House of Representatives, on June 11, set up an ad hoc committee to investigate the NAHCON over the conduct of the 2024 Hajj pilgrimage. The resolution of the House followed the adoption of a motion titled, “Urgent need to investigate the National Hajj Commission and the Federal Capital Territory Administration Muslim Pilgrims Welfare Board, their agents and sub-agents over shoddy arrangement and treatment of Nigerian pilgrims in the 2024 Hajj exercise.”
The motion was moved by the lawmaker representing Baruten/Kaiama Federal Constituency of Kwara State, Mr Mohammed Bio.
Describing Hajj exercise as an important obligation important in the life of every Muslims and one of the five pillars of Islam, Bio lamented that about 50, 865 Muslim pilgrims across Nigeria were under the care of NAHCON in 2024, noting that some of them were not taken care of in terms of welfare, organisation, guidance and monitoring as expected.
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