No guarantor, No Hajj – Bauchi Hajj Board tells intending pilgrims

The Bauchi State Muslims Pilgrims Welfare Board has said that the commission will not approve the application of anybody wishing to partake in future hajj operation in the Holy city of Saudi Arabia if he or she failed to produce a surety best on the requirements of the commission.

The Executive Secretary of the Hajj commission, Alhaji Abdullahi Magaji Hardawa disclosed this during a courtesy call on Executives of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ),Bauchi at the Council Secretariat in Bauchi at the Weekend.

Alhaji Hardawa said that the new development became necessary following cases of abscondment by some Nigerians in the Saudi Kingdom after the previous year’s Hajj exercise.

“On the issue of guarantor ship,‎ all those travelling to Saudi Arabia for Hajj must provide guarantor before they are issued with visas. Saudi authority must satisfy itself that the person has someone standing for him or her as a surety, a guarantor”. Hardawa said.

He added that, “the Nigerian government is very strict on that as well because of two incidents that occurred at the end of 2016 Hajj operation whereby during the hajj period, some Nigerians were caught with prohibited hard drugs, they were prosecuted and dealt with according to the laws of Saudi Arabia, which we know is death penalty‎”.

The Secretary of the commission lamented that, “at the end of the hajj, a large number of Nigerian pilgrims just vanished, they melted, they disappeared, we could not account for them”.

While pointing out that the two incidences almost smear the existing cordial relationship between Nigeria and the government of Saudi Arabia, Hardawa said for that, the Nigerian government took a firm position to ensure that everybody must have to produce a guarantor that would be held responsible should the pilgrim misbehaved during and after the Hajj exercise.

He said for person to be accepted as a guarantor, he must be either an Immam of Jumaat Mosque of a location where the intending Pilgrim comes from, District head or a civil servants who have attended the rank of Grade level 12 from federal down to the local government.

The Secretary while urging intending Pilgrims to enrol for the National Identity card on time said without it, the National Hajj Commission will not grant approval for their visas.

He said, “Following a declaration by the Saudi authority that all intending Pilgrims must have their Biometrics captured, an Egyptian privately owned company of international repute was hired to handle applications from Nigeria and some other African Countries by the Saudi government where the firm established three centres in Lagos, Abuja and Kano states”.

Hardawa further said that at the instance of President Muhammadu Buhari’s plea, the Saudi government have now increased the centres from three to ten to reduce congestion at the registration centres so as to ease the sufferings of intending Pilgrims during the exercise.

In his welcome address, the Bauchi state Council Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Comrade Mohammed Ibrahim Mallam Goje thanked the officials of the Hajj commission for the visit, stating that the members of the Press in Bauchi are very critical stakeholders with regards to the operation of the Board.

Mallam Goje who assured the Board of Journalists continued support ‎, commended the present management of Bauchi State Muslims Pilgrims Welfare Board for bringing sanity in the sales of hajj seats in Bauchi state.