19th October, 2017
The Senate Ad-Hoc Committee on National Hajj Commission (NAHCON) and the Nigerian Christian Pilgrims Commission (NCPC) on Thursday threatened to issue warrant of arrest against the Chairman of NAHCON, Alhaji Abdullahi Muktar.
According to the committee, the NAHCON boss has refused to honour three different invitations sent to him to appear before it for explanations on alleged extortions of pilgrims and exorbitant hajj fees
Chairman of the committee, Sen. Adamu Aliero (APC-Kebbi) made this known while briefing newsmen in Abuja, on Thursday.
“The NAHCON chairman, through his behaviour, has been a stumbling block to the committee as far as the assignment given to it by the Senate is concerned.
“He has not honoured any of the invitations sent to him since Aug. 7,” Aliero noted.
“In July the very month the committee was set up by the Senate, invitation letter was sent to the NAHCON boss to furnish us with required information on the Hajj exercise as regards total money to be spent by the commission, fees being charged per pilgrim among others but complained that such information could not be supplied then due to preparation on the impending exercise.
“Consequently with the 2017 Hajj exercise over for close to two months now and the NAHCON chairman failing to honour the invitation of the committee and forwarding to it required documents for the assigned investigation, the committee will definitely invoke the relevant section of the 1999 constitution to compel his appearance ”.
He, however, said a fresh letter of invitation would be sent to the NAHCON boss before invocation of the constitutional provisions that would enforce his appearance before the committee.
Some of the documents expected from the NAHCON boss by the committee are copies of the commission’s 2017 Appropriation Act and details of funding.