Niger State Governor Umaru Bago criticized the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) for the perceived mistreatment of Nigerian pilgrims in Mecca during the 2024 Hajj in Saudi Arabia.
The Zamfara helmsman appreciated the Saudi Arabia government for their hospitality and commended President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for his efforts.
However, he lamented that the NAHCON which is saddled with the responsibility of making sure that all pilgrims from the country performed the Hajj ritual comfortably failed to live up to it’s expected functions.
“If I assess the 2024 Hajj exercise, I will tell you that Nigeria has failed and continued to fail the pilgrims in terms of operations,” Governor Umaru Bago declared.
He said the feeding of Pilgrims in Medina, their accommodation in Medina, the tents in Muna and Arafat, the transportation both land and Air and medical workers handled by NAHCON hindered smooth operations of Hajj Ritual exercise, stressing that there is no country do that in the whole world.
The Governor however noted that over 100 pilgrims from Nigeria that died during the Hajj exercise was also as a result of NAHCON’s inability to carry out it’s functions proactively.
“In my own state,Niger, we lost two pilgrims in Medina and four in Muna due to heat waves, making six pilgrims but in Nigeria in total we lost over 100 pilgrims and that the reason I said the state should be able to screen it’s pilgrims and understand their health status and know how special to treat them too with underline health challenges” the Governor further stated .
Speaking, he also called on the National Assembly to probe the subsidy funds given to NAHCON by Federal Government.
“There is a need for the National Assembly to probe the N90 billion fund given to NAHCON by the Federal Government and as a state Governor, I am calling on the committee of Northern Governors Forum(NGF) to scrap NAHCON because they are not living up to the expectations of Nigerians,”the Governor maintained.
He said the Federal Government is too large and busy to disturb itself with the Hajj issues, emphasizing that it is supposed to be the local governments responsibilities.
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