South West states petition hajj commission over withheld refunds

States in the South West have petitioned the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria to release 2022 Hajj refunds withheld by the former Chairman of the commission, Zikirullah Hassan.

The states, including Lagos, Ogun, Osun, Ondo, Oyo and Ekiti, made the petition to the commission’s current Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Jalal Arabi.

The petition was signed by the Pilgrims Board Secretaries of the southwestern states, including Alhaji D.B Salau (Ogun); Alhaji Onipede Saheed (Lagos); Alhaji Omoniyi Mohammed (Ondo); Alhaji Egbeyemi Ishaq (Ekiti); Alhaja Khadijat Olanipekun (Oyo); and Alhaji Murithadar Fakunle (Lagos).

In the petition, the secretaries explained that the former chairman excluded the Southwestern states from the 2022 Hajj refunds “without due justification for such.”

They said the refund was meant for services that were either not rendered or not rendered to the satisfaction of the states’ pilgrims.

Hassan was the CEO of NAHCON from January 2020 to October 2023, and he conducted two annual Hajj operations, until President Bola Tinubu dissolved the Board, and appointed Arabi as Chairman and CEO of the commission.

The Hajj refunds include those to intending pilgrims who paid hajj fare but didn’t travel, pilgrims who travelled to hajj but returned using private means, those arising from penalties from erring service providers, and services not rendered or rendered unsatisfactorily.

The Hajj commission had announced the sum of N108 million as refunds for services not rendered or rendered poorly in the 2022 Hajj, which include feeding and accommodation in Makkah; feeding, accommodation, and number of days spent in Madinah; feeding, beddings, toiletries, cooling system, sanitation, and water supply in Masha’er (Muna and Arafat); feeding at Jeddah airport; transport routing between Madinah-Makkah-Jeddah and Jeddah-Madinah-Makkah-Jeddah.

In 2023, the commission created the Inspectorate, Evaluation, and Compliance Unit, saddled with the responsibility of monitoring and computing these refunds.

The intending pilgrims who paid but didn’t perform the Hajj include pilgrims who missed the Hajj due to medical screening, especially pregnant women; pilgrims who missed the Hajj due to ill- health; and lastly pilgrims who die before the airlift begins.

The six states of the Southwest had a total of 3,422 pilgrims: Lagos (1,562), Osun (460), Ogun (497), Ondo (191), Ekiti (83), and Oyo (629) for the 2022 Hajj.

Speaking with journalists in Abuja, NAHCON’s spokesperson, Fatima Usara, said the commission under Hassan, had disbursed the 2022 Hajj refunds to qualified states, noting that some states either failed to fill the forms or did not indicate the quality of services during the exercise.

“States with genuine cases were paid,” she said.

“Some states deliberately didn’t fill the forms for refunds; where they do, they leave the space meant for describing the quality of services blank. That is one of the challenges we are facing. Some of these states only come up with claims after they see genuine states being paid,” she added.