2018 hajj: NAHCON allocates 3,090 slots to Bauchi Gombe gets 2,005

The Bauchi State Muslims Pilgrims Welfare Board has announced that the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) allocated 3,090 slots to the state for the 2018 hajj exercise.

The Executive Secretary of the board, Abdullahi Hardawa, told journalists in Bauchi that intending pilgrims were required to make an initial deposit of N300,000 as against N250,000 collected in 2017, which should be completed in whole or in installments to reach the maximum deposit before the final date.

He said intending pilgrims must have a deposit of not less than N1,500,000 before March 9th, 2018, which is three days before the 12th March, 2018 set aside by NAHCON for final remittance by state boards.

Hardawa said Governor Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar directed the board to collect initial deposit of N300,000 from the state’s intending pilgrims instead of the N1million being collected by most other states, but lamented that despite this gesture, the registration was slow in the state.

He said NAHCON had given state pilgrims boards until January 31st, 2018 as the last day to submit the registered intending pilgrims from their respective states, adding that the board would submit the names of intending pilgrims from the state able to make their full payment by the end of January 2018.

In another development, over N47 million has been credited to the Bauchi State Muslim Pilgrim Welfare Board as refund to the state’s pilgrims who performed the 2017 Hajj exercise.

Hardawa said many pilgrims who performed the 2016 Hajj were yet to collect the refund for services not rendered to them during the exercise.

He said each pilgrim to the 2017 Hajj would be given N11,400 for services not rendered.

On its own, the Gombe State Muslim Pilgrims Welfare Board has said that NAHCON has allocated 2,005 seats to the state for the 2018 Hajj exercise.

The Executive Secretary of the board, Malam Usman Gurama, stated this while briefing newsmen on the plans for the 2018 hajj operations and the disbursement of the N25 million refunded to the board by NAHCON.

He said the board had commenced collection of deposit and registration of the intending pilgrims since November.

Gurama said intending pilgrim were required to make an initial deposit of N300, 000 towards the maximum deposit of N1,500,000 by March 2018.

The executive secretary, announcing that N25 million was reimbursed to the board by the NAHCON as refund to the state’s pilgrims who performed the 2017 hajj exercise, said the board had since started disbursing the money to the pilgrims and called on those who had not collected their refund to come forward.