From: Tunde Omolehin, Sokoto
A pilgrim from Sokoto State is being probed for illegally collecting USD 100 each from five pilgrims, for the purchase of sacrificial animals, the state Amirul Hajj, Justice Bello Abbas, has confirmed.
The pilgrim (names withheld), according to a source was said to have fraudulently collected the money, before his apprehension by the members of the State government’s 2017 Hajj delegation.
The source told our correspondent in Sokoto, that the pilgrim had perpetrated similar nefarious acts in the previous Hajj exercises.
The Amiru Hajj spoke through a delegate official, Alhaji Ibrahim Gusau, saying the pilgrim would be thoroughly investigated and appropriately sanctioned, if found wanting.
Abbas assured that warned that any pilgrim from the state found wanting would not be spared.
“All the pilgrims should arrive Saudi Arabia to be good ambassadors of the state and Nigeria while in the Holy Land,” he appealed.
Also commenting on the issue, the Director, Operations of the Sokoto State Pilgrims Welfare Agency, Alhaji Abdulganiyu Muhammad, said the pilgrim is from Sokoto South local government and had been in this business for six consecutive years.
“We don’t want to give his name or tell you more about him as at now because doing so is amounting to preempting the outcome of the probe,” he said