By FUNMILAYO ADEYEMI

The Nigerian Christian Pilgrim Commission (NCPC) says it will adopt whistle blowing for staff of the Commission involved in aiding abscondment of pilgrims.

This is contained in a Communiqué at the end of a four-day Retreat held in Jos and made available to newsmen in Abuja on Saturday.

The communiqué revealed that all intending pilgrims should be thoroughly screen physically or through Zoom in order to beat visa application deadlines.

It said the whistle blowing mechanism would evolve an effective screening system at different levels of its operations.

It said that henceforth all screening exercises would be led by very senior and experience officers to avoid the incidents of abscondments.

It said that forms for use by State Christian Pilgrim Welfare Boards (SCPWBs) should be harmonised across various states and approved by the Commission before use.

“Screening officers should not decide based on statement of accounts, has been found to be on many occasions.

“That all States SCPWBs should be made to realise that pilgrims who have been airlifted by the Commission to various Holy Sites should be seen as Nigerian pilgrims and not the limited view of seeing such pilgrims as belonging to a particular state,” it said.

The communiqué accordingly said that in this respect, SCPWBs should work closely with the Commission’s staff in order to ensure a smooth pilgrimage devoid of pilgrim’s abscondments.

It further said that the authority of federal government officials (including NCPC staff) should be communicated by the Executive Secretary to all states during conference of States meeting.

“Any Secretary of SCPWBs who desires to guarantee an intending pilgrim should not be allowed to guarantee more than two pilgrims.

“Pilgrims to be so guaranteed; and where the SCPWBs desires to provide guarantee for more than two, then he should be made to submit a written undertaking to the Executive Secretary of NCPC to that effect.

“And the ES of NCPC will examine such and reach a decision as appropriate in the circumstances.

“That staff on screening exercise to Zonal Offices should leverage on the knowledge of the staff of such Zonal Offices of the local environment to guide them.

“That two staff or at least one staff who carried out the screening of any pilgrims should be made to accompany such pilgrims whenever they are travelling; this is to apply any knowledge gained during the screening for monitoring of those pilgrims.

“In this respect the name of any suspected pilgrim should be compiled and given to staff traveling with them to nip any attempt to escape on the part of the pilgrims,” it said.

The communiqué also explained that in this respect, the ratio of staff in any bus should increase in order to curtail attempts of escaping.

It said staff on screening assignments should be thoroughly tutored on the art of report writing, to be able to capture all details of the screening exercise to minimise abscondment.

“Accordingly, staff who delay submitting reports after a screening will be thoroughly disciplined in line with extant rules and regulations.

“Intelligence gathering on pilgrims with two passports should be intensified.

“Pilgrims renewed passports should be double-checked intensely to ensure that they do not submit the expired passport while still using the valid passport to aid abscondment.

“In this respect any pilgrim submitting an expired passport should be automatically seen as a potential absconder.

“That in respect of the above, issuance of Visa on passport to staff of the Commission is deemed to enhance their relevance and ease of movement of such staff.

“That the Commission will embark on continuous re-evaluation of screening reports and the list of names sent for Visa procurement,” the communiqué stated. (NAN)

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