Another crisis appears to be brewing at the National Hajj Commission over more than N2.8 billion belonging to travel agents but seized by the commission.

This was made known through a letter sent to the new commission chairman, Abdullahi Usman, by travel agents under the umbrella of the Association for Hajj and Umrah Operators of Nigeria, which was obtained by our Correspondent on Friday.

The letter was in response to an advertisement placed by NAHCON to call for applications for travel slots from licensed agents for the 2025 Hajj operations.

The letter, dated August 24, was signed by the national president of AHUON, insisting that the NAHCON chairman should ensure that books were closed for the last hajj operations before initiating the commencement of the 2025 hajj operations.

It should be recalled that travel agents claimed that NAHCON owed about 114 of them N25m each, culminating in about N2.8b, being deposit payments.

Usually, these funds are paid to show financial capacity to NAHCON that agents have the capital to adequately cater for the pilgrims they will be transporting for the hajj.

The travel agents also alleged the commission withheld N1bn belonging to 200 agents as their initial deposits during the 2023 hajj operations and could not account for the N1bn service charge taken from pilgrims.

These allegations, among others, caused the removal of the immediate past chairman of the commission, Jalal Arabi, after anti-corruption agents quizzed him.

Meanwhile, during a visit of the presidential panel looking into the financial misappropriation that hit the commission, Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, on Wednesday called for a complete overhaul of the commission.

The AHUON president, in the latest letter, praised the zeal of the commission to open a new book for the 2025 Hajj operation on time but requested the payment of his member’s funds before another operation.

The letter, which was titled, RE: application for 2025 hajj licence and slot allocation for travel agencies reads partly, “Permit me to refer to your advertorial in The Nation Newspaper of Saturday, 24th of August 2024 with the above caption. In an ideal situation, this could have caused celebrations from tour operators, because, for the first time, you are kick-starting the Hajj processes early enough.

“However, while we appreciate the zeal of the commission to open a new book for the 2025 Hajj operation on time, we feel it is important to draw its attention to the fact that the book for the 2024 Hajj has not been properly closed as far as tour operators are concerned.

“Therefore, our expectation was that the commission will address all pending issues relating to the 2024 operations before the invitation to bid for the 2025 Hajj license.”

Usman added, “In fact, a three-week’ timeline was given by the management of the Commission. It is, therefore, strange to us that the commission will place a public notice for a new bid while the pending issues have not been concluded. For your information, sir, there are some of our members that have not been paid their 2023 caution deposits of N5,000,000.00 (five million naira only). “

The association also requested a N20m share of the 2024 development fee paid by pilgrims to the commission.

“As we speak, the commission has not taken any action in that regard, and we are aware the Mu’assasah has also approved the refund for the 2024 tent a service failure.

“Refund of development levy. Fourthly, on the 24th of July 2024, we wrote a letter of reminder for the payment of N20,000,000.00 (twenty million naira only) being 20 per cent of the association’s share from the 2023 development levy as agreed and graciously approved by the last management,” the agents noted.

Meanwhile, a source at NAHCON, who pleaded anonymity for she is not in a position to speak for the commission, told our correspondents, “The funds are either stacked somewhere for the purpose of increments in the CBN or it may have been shared by the top echelons of the commission. If the agents refuse to stand uprightly and demand for their money with a straight face, it will become bad debt.”

The sources added, “Hope is still being kept alive because of the new chairman; we hope he will not go the way of the immediate past chairman.”

All efforts to get the spokesperson of the commission, Fatima Usara, to speak on the matter proved abortive as repeated calls put across to her phone were neither answered nor returned.

Also, text messages of inquiry sent to her phone were not responded to. (Sunday PUNCH)

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