2019 Hajj: Deal with officials alone, NAHCON advises pilgrims

The National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) has advised pilgrims to avoid dealing with people who are not officials to avoid falling victims of gold tooth-fixing syndicate.

NAHCON’s Head of Civic Orientation, Umar Bala, while fielding questions from journalists on Tuesday in Madinah, said the officials of the commission had been visiting pilgrims in their hotels to advise them on how to keep their money and valuables.

Bala, who said all officials of the commission serving in various committees had been directed to be part of enlightenment campaigns for the pilgrims, added that the primary role of NAHCON was to work towards realising an acceptable Hajj.

When asked about his advice to pilgrims on how to take care of their money and other belongings, he said, “if you could recall, we have been visiting pilgrims in order to sensitise them on how to go about with their money and those going about telling them that they will assist them in fixing gold teeth and others.

“We have conducted a series of enlightenment campaigns right from Nigeria. We have conducted train-the-trainer workshop to enlighten them on how to go about training their individual pilgrims so that they should avoid those kinds of people. Our advice to pilgrims is that they should not deal with anybody unless they are officials.

“We have been sensitising them in order to avoid this kind of situation so that they will not fall in the hands of this syndicate. We discover that these people are like syndicate. They are all over the place. Unfortunately, you discover that some of them have prior information of houses where our pilgrims will be accommodated.

“This is a very serious issue. We are appealing to State Pilgrims Welfare Board to make sure that their officials are attached to every house their pilgrims are accommodated so that they can always guide them on what to do. I think that is the best thing we can do.”

Meanwhile, NAHCON’s Command and Control Centre says 8,239 Nigerian pilgrims from Katsina, Kano, Kaduna, Nasarawa, Kebbi, Kwara, Kogi, and Lagos states have been transported to Saudi Arabia since the airlift began on July 10.

The pilgrims were moved in a total of 17 flights. 95,000 Nigerian pilgrims are given the opportunity to perform this year’s Hajj exercise. From the figure, government quota stands at 65,000, while private tour operators will provide the remaining 30,000 pilgrims.