As the 2022 Hajj window is drawing to a close, some tour operators have accused the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria, NAHCON, of lopsidedness in the allocation of slots for international pilgrims to private companies.
DAILY NIGERIAN reports that NAHCON had earlier allocated 8,485 slots to 176 private Hajj operators.
In that, nine companies were given 90 slots each; three got 75 slots; 25 received 70 slots, while the remaining 144 companies received 50 slots each.
Findings however show that 25 companies got zero allocation as they could not access the portal to process entries for their pilgrim clients.
This prompted the Association of Hajj and Umrah Operators Of Nigeria to intervene and met with the management of NAHCON.
After the meeting, a decision was taken that 50 slots would be allocated evenly to each of the 176 licensed companies.
In spite of the intervention, DAILY NIGERIAN correspondent gathered that three companies still received zero slots from NAHCON.
The affected companies include M&M Royal Travel and Tours Limited, Travel Data Travel and Tours Limited and JBS Travel and Tours.
Speaking to DAILY NIGERIAN, an official of one of the affected companies who pleaded anonymity accused NAHCON of bias by allocating more than the agreed 50 slots to some “favored private Hajj operators”.
According to the source, should NAHCON stick to the resolution of 50 slots to each of the 176 operators, no company would be missed out in this year’s operation.
While stressing that their company had met all the requirements for this year’s Hajj operation, the sources lamented that they were given zero allocation of slots.
The companies, he lamented, would incur huge losses as they had collected Hajj fares from their clients, booked hotels, bought flight tickets, which are non-refundable, among other services.
“This is an unfair, unlawful, improper, unethical and inequitable decision of the commission, which has no regards to our commitments with hotel, airlines and existing completed contract with different intending pilgrims for this year’s hajj.
“Some of our customers had deposited their money and did not collect it back since 2020 and 2021 when there were no Hajj exercises, but this decision of NAHCON may cost them this year’s Hajj also.
“We strongly condemn the biased distribution of Hajj slots after it was agreed that 50 slots will be given evenly to all the 176 tour operators.
“Our investigation had revealed that NAHCON had given more than 50 slots to its favoured companies at our expense.
“We will not agree with this. We will not condone this unfair treatment,” said the source
The source also called for full scale investigation into the matter to avoid recurrence in subsequent Hajj operations, promising to provide documents in evidence of what it described as injustice, atrocious and illegal action of the commission.
Although the spokesperson for NAHCON Fatima Usara did not respond to our inquiries on the latest development, she had previously issued a statement on the matter.
In the previous statement, Mrs Usara directed the tour operators to commence printing of their pilgrims’ travel documents without delay, stressing that the Hajj quota allocated to Nigeria had been completely exhausted.
She said: “The National Hajj Commission of Nigeria, NAHCON, wishes to inform State Pilgrims’ Welfare Boards/Agencies/Commissions, Licensed Tour Operators, and the public that the Hajj quota allocated to Nigeria has been completely exhausted long before now.
“It is hoped that all Hajj managers had utilized their allocations based on first come, first served arrangement as agreed from the onset of operations.
“Similarly, the Commission assures Licensed Tour Operators that initial drawbacks experienced due to unforeseen developments in the new operational system have been successfully settled, therefore, they are expected to commence printing of their pilgrims’ travel documents without delay.”
