Group advocates prosecution of Hajj seat racketeers

From Muhammad Ibrahim, Kaduna

A group, under the aegis of Independent Hajj Reporters, yesterday urged Kaduna State Muslim Pilgrims’ Welfare Board to ensure that its staff allegedly caught extorting money from pilgrims in exchange for hajj seats are investigated and prosecuted appropriately.

This was contained in a statement issued yesterday in Kaduna, jointly signed by its National Coordinator, Ibrahim Mohammed, and Publicity Secretary, Abubakar Mahmoud.

The group further commended the leadership of the state’s Muslim Pilgrims Welfare board, for establishing a control mechanism in the sales of hajj seats that made it possible to detect such corrupt acts.

“We implore them to ensure that the culprits are brought to justice or in order to deter other would be offenders from such acts. It is in view of this and other irregularities associated with sales of hajj seats that Independent Hajj Reporters recently advise NAHCON to set up a Task Force to streamline and monitor the distribution and sales of hajj seats nationwide.

The group advised other state pilgrims’ board to emulate Kaduna state in order to discourage corrupt attitude of a few people who has brought shame and negative image to hajj exercise in the country.

It promised to assist the board in fishing out hajj seat racketeers through its recently constituted Hajj seat monitoring team.

They further advised the board to setup a pilgrims’ complain box in all the wards and local governments of their respective states.

This measure, according to them will create an easy channel for people who have suggestion, observation and complain to forward them to the authority without alteration.