Kano State Pilgrims Welfare Board has said 156 intending pilgrims will miss going to the Holy Land this year due to the excessive number of hajj seats sold by the sacked officials of the agency.
The National Hajj Commission had allocated 6,144 seats to Kano but the commission sold 156 more seats.
The revelation was made by the director-general of the board, Alhaji Laminu Rabiu during a media chat yesterday in Kano. He said the officials behind it would be investigated and prosecuted accordingly after the hajj exercise.
Rabiu appealed to those affected to be patient and promised to give them priority treatment in the next hajj.
Meanwhile, only 2,558 pilgrims have been airlifted to the Holy Land by the board as it awaits allocation of aircraft to the state by the National Hajj Commission in the next few days.
“Kano State has been allocated 6, 144 seats. On resumption of duty after my appointment as the Director General, I found out that all the seats have been sold out by the then Secretary. I did not find any available seats.
“Moreover, he had oversold the seats by about 156 seats, meaning that they will not be able to perform the Hajj even after making all payments and fulfilling the requirements.
“It is really very sad to collect people’s money and disappoint them after they might have informed all and sundry that they were going to attend the pilgrimage,” he said.
He added that “we have pleaded with them to be patient and assured them that next year they would be among the first to be considered. Already 2,558 have since been successfully airlifted to the Holy Land.
“We are going to investigate the incident after the Hajj and ensure that whosoever is found guilty of any misdoings faces the wrath of the law accordingly.”
He dismissed allegations of allocating other people’s seats, insisting that the seats have since been exhausted and there was no seat to allocate to anybody this year.
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