President Bola Tinubu has sacked Chairman, National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) Jalal Ahmad Arabi.
Subsequently, the president approved the appointment of Professor Abdullahi Saleh Usman as the Executive Chairman of the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON).
Professor Usman is a renowned scholar with qualifications from two Islamic centres of excellence — the University of Madinah and Peshawar University, Pakistan.
He is also well-grounded in Hajj operations, having served as the Chairman of Kano State Pilgrims Board, and successfully superintended the operations of the largest quota of state pilgrims in the country.
A statement signed by Chief Ajuri Ngelale, special Adviser to the President
Media & Publicity on Monday said Usman’s appointment is subject to confirmation by the Senate.
According to the president, the President expects the new Chairman of NAHCON to discharge his duties with integrity, transparency, and utmost fidelity to the nation.
The sack of former NAHCON chairman came on the background of N90 Billion 2024 Hajj subsidy scandal already generating public concern.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has recovered the sum of N778 million and N137 million proceeds of fraud from Arabi’s account.
A reliable source disclosed that the former NAHCON chairman illegally paid self and other officials N137m inflated estacode and same has been recovered by the anti-graft.
It was gathered that Arabi backdated documents, inserted a proviso in a minutes of a meeting, used same and fraudulently paid N778M as consultancy fees to non-existing consultancy contract.
“Out of the N90 billion Hajj subsidy, the chairman instructed the withdrawal of N3.7 billion in cash, and the same is yet to be accounted for. All these are preliminaries. Full disclosures will reveal how pilgrims’ accommodation contracts were geometrically inflated, so also drugs, transportation, etc, almost all aspects of the hajj operations.
“When such shameful acts are committed in the processes of discharging a religious pillar, by some highly places Nigerians pretending to be religion leaders who are given a trust, then Satan the devil has taken over their sense of commitment to God”. A reliable source disclosed.