The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has detained Executive Chairman of the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria, Jalal Arabi, and the secretary, Abdullahi Kontagora, over alleged N90 billion hajj subsidy fraud ¹.
President Bola Tinubu had approved N90 billion for the commission to subsidize the hajj cost of pilgrims. However, the EFCC began inviting top officials of the Hajj Commission for questioning over alleged mismanagement of the funds.
A document by the anti-graft agency showed that a total of SR314,098 was recovered from the NAHCON chairman and other officials. The anti-graft agency stressed that its investigation revealed that from the N90 billion released for Hajj subsidy, Arabi fraudulently overpaid himself and others the necessary operational cost ¹.
The EFCC investigation also revealed that the chairman fraudulently overpaid himself, the commissioners, secretary and directors for the 2024 hajj operational cost. The chairman was entitled to SR15,929 but he got SR50,000; three commissioners who were meant to get SR 15,929 each received SR 40,000 each. The secretary got SR 30,000 instead of SR14,336. Directors/Chief of Staff received SR 30,000 instead of the SR2,550 they were entitled to. The total of SR314,098 were recovered from all of them ¹.
Another document revealed that the sum of SR8,614,175.27 cash withdrawal out of the N90 billion released by the Federal Government to the commission is yet to be accounted for by NAHCON ¹.
