The green chamber of the National Assembly have launched an investigation into the non-issuance of hand band to pilgrims for the 2016 Hajj exercise.
The House referred the matter to the committee on Nigeria-Saudi Committee on Hajj to investigate the motion and report back to the house in 3 weeks.
The motion was brought to the House by Danburam Abubakar representing Kano Municipal, he said the reasons why he is concerned is that the pilgrims did not get value for their money.
According to him, the pilgrims paid twenty-five thousand naira each for the hand band and it was not given to them during the Hajj exercise.
He also observed that a total number of 65,167 pilgrims performed the Hajj, which means that the sum of one billion, six hundred and twenty nine million, one hundred and seventy five thousand was generated by the Hajj Commission from the sales of the hand band.
Some Members, mostly muslims supported the motion and also said they would have preferred an ad-hoc committee to carry out the investigation instead of the Nigeria-Saudi committee on Hajj which is vested with the powers to look into such issues.
While contributing to the motion, Ado Dogowa said it is important for the house to dig deep into the matter. He also supported the investigation of the matter by an ad-hoc committee.
"The house should not sweep this matter under the carpet because its involve mostly the ordinary Nigerians".
Abdul Sani, the deputy Chairman of the house committee on Nigeria-Saudi Hajj committee raised a point of information, he said that his committee was already investigating same issue so there is no need for an ad-hoc committee to be set up for same matter hence their report shall soon be presented on the floor of the house.
The Minority Leader, Leo Ogor also condemned the non-issuance of the hand band for pilgrims despite the importance of it.
He also said it is necessary to know if due process was followed in the issuance of the contract. He further said the conflicting statements credited to members of the Hajj committee calls for questioning.
According to Ogor, Umar Keita, a member of the Hajj committee stated that the hand bands were not issued to pilgrims as such some pilgrims could not gain access to the holy place whereas the chairman of the Hajj committee said the opposite.
During an interview with the mover of the motion after plenary, he denied any ulterior motive behind the referral of the motion to an ad-hoc committee.
"I am confident that the house standing committee on Hajj will do a detail investigation that will be satisfactory to all. It is not only me that will look into the report and if we are not satisfied we shall call for another investigation", Danburam said.
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