‘They neglect their duties’ — CSO deploys team to monitor activities of hajj officials in Saudi

The Independent Hajj Reporters (IHR), a civil society organisation, says some team members have been deployed to monitor the activities of pilgrim officials in Saudi Arabia.

In a statement on Thursday, Ibrahim Muhammad, national coordinator of the organisation, said a five-man team has been constituted to keep an eye on the activities of officials and service providers to the pilgrims.

Muhammad said the team would work with the inspectorate and evaluation committee of the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) to ensure all responsibilities are conducted as stipulated in their schedule of duty.

He said most of the service providers deployed to Saudi to assist Nigerians abandon their duties during the hajj exercise.

“Over the years, we have observed that some officials, especially ad hoc ones, abandon their duties once they get to Saudi Arabia. This ugly trend affects the quality of services that were expected to be offered to our dear pilgrims,” the statement reads.

“Some officials even go as far as personally demanding to be served instead of serving the pilgrims, which is the primary reason they are appointed.

“Hajj officials from other countries are always in uniform for easy identification and are at the service of their pilgrims 24 hours. Most of them don’t perform hajj because they consider their primary responsibility of serving their respective pilgrims weightier than any other secondary issue.

“We are going to obtain the comprehensive lists of all states and NAHCON-appointed hajj officials and monitor their performance throughout the hajj.”

The coordinator said the committee would monitor all officials in Jeddah, Makkah, Madinah, Muna and Arafat.

“The committee will compile its observations in a form of a report which will be forwarded to all relevant officials for further actions and to serve as a guide toward recruitment of ad hoc officials in subsequent hajj exercise,” he added.