The ‘cold war’ between the Association for Hajj and Umrah Operators of Nigeria (AHOUN) and the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) took another dimension today when the tour operators threatened to take legal action against the commission if it fails to refund over N17 billion due to its members.
The tour operators’ body had last week directed members to suspend all activities towards preparation for the 2025 Hajj operations until further notice, adding that members would only resume preparation when NAHCON acceded to the requests before it, including the issue of refunds.
But while addressing a press conference in Abuja today, AHOUN president Alhaji Abdullateef Ekundayo Yusuf said NAHCON had kept mute on tour operators’ refunds since 2004.
He informed them that what was being owed his members included refunds for caution deposits, unused visas, excess payments, and Umrah deposits, among others, adding that the Hajj commission had been holding on to these without communication on whether it would ever pay them back.
According to Yusuf, “Last year alone, the commission collected over N2.7 billion as a caution deposit from our members with an agreement the funds were to be released two weeks after the conclusion of the Hajj.
“NAHCON has refused to refund any of the companies that applied for it; instead, they are asking for more money as an increase to last year’s deposit.
“From the year 2004 to date, the Commission has attested to having held our members funds through several engagements, for example, unused visas, excess payments, Umrah deposits, etc., and has not shown any sign of refunding such funds.
“In fact, our agreement with the Commission to publish the list of the companies under this category since last year has not been met. It is worth noting that many of our members have passed on waiting for these refunds.”
The AHOUN boss informed that the association approached NAHCON in 2022 to assist members in facilitating the release of millions of Saudi Riyals in their Saudi account, IBAN.
Yusuf informed us that NAHCON’s intervention was sought by the tour operators because they could not access their IBAN, yet the commission refused to do anything on their behalf.
He lamented that if not for the ongoing investigation of the commission by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), AHOUN would not know that NAHCON had received the sum of 20,000,000 SR refunds from Saudi authorities since December last year.
According to him, NAHCON failed to notify the tour operators of receiving any refunds from the Saudi authorities until EFCC commenced investigating the commission.
“Furthermore, NAHCON owes our members over N15 billion. It was the practice of the Saudi government after each Hajj operation to refund money to countries on three grounds. Number one, services paid by pilgrims but not rendered; number two, services paid for but poorly rendered to the agreed standard; and number three, tent security deposits.
“Our members are owed all these categories of money from the 2022 Hajj to date by the commission. They confirmed in our meeting with them that they have received the sum of 20,000,000 SR (Twenty Million Saudi Riyals) of such a refund from the Saudi authority since December last year, but they are yet to formally notify us, talk less of agreeing on the modalities of the refund payment.
“Even this 20,000,000.00 SR, if not for the investigation EFCC conducted on the commission, we wouldn’t have known that it has been paid since December 2023. We only got to know through media reports before they now confirmed to us at our last meeting,” Yusuf said.
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