The National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) has allocated six hundred and fifty-one seats to Taraba State for the 2022 pilgrimage exercise.
The Executive Secretary of the Taraba State Muslim Pilgrims Welfare Board, Alhaji Ahmed Umar Chiroma disclosed this to newsmen in Jalingo shortly after a Board meeting, held at the conference hall of the Board.
He noted that the number of pilgrims allocated globally was not up to half of those who performed the exercise in 2019 which affected the country down to the states’ allocations including Taraba.
Chiroma also disclosed that all the intending pilgrims who have deposited their money in 2020-2021 to augment the amount deposited to the tune of at least N2.5m before 18th of May, 2022 in line with the National Hajj Commission’s directive.
According to him, one of the principal reasons for heightening the Hajj fare this year is because of the exchange rate of the naira to the dollar, adding that since 2019 the exchange rate has been on the increase.
Alhaji Ahmed Umar Chiroma, however, revealed that this year’s Hajj exercise is only limited to intending pilgrims below the age of 65 years and it applies to even the officials that are going to accompany the pilgrims.
He further explained that each intending pilgrim including the officials must have taken all three doses of COVID-19 vaccination as one of the conditions.
The Executive Secretary appreciated Governor Darius Ishaku for his untiring support to the board that leads to the successes in its operations.
Recalled that NAHCON received 43,008 hajj slots for 2022 as against the 95,000 allocations approved for Nigeria in the previous years.
Sani Sulaiman
