Lagos State Commissioner for Home Affairs, Prince Anofiu Olanrewaju Elegushi, has described as “unfounded” allegation that the state officials defrauded pilgrims the sum of N47 million for animal sacrifice in Muna.
Prince Elegushi, who is the state’s Amirul Hajj, spoke in Makkah, Saudi Arabia at a press briefing by him and the Special Adviser to Lagos State Governor on Islamic Matters, Alhaji Ahmed Jebe as well as members of Lagos Sate Pilgrims’ Welfare Board led by Alhaji Shakiru AbdulGafar.
The commissioner added that the allegation published by an online medium was mischievous and an attempt to rubbish the success recorded by the state during the Hajj exercise.
According to him, the animal sacrifice’s fee was not made compulsory on pilgrims as there were options for them to go fasting or pay to agent of their choice.
The Commissioner said only 364 pilgrims paid to the board out of 1,672.
He noted that the money collected was not only for animal sacrifice but also Siyara (visitation to historical sites).
“It is a norm that the board always collects the ram money from the pilgrims to make proper arrangements. Why, because some of our pilgrims in previous operations fell into the hands of people that duped them. They collected their money and did not even visit the slaughter farm, not to talk of slaughtering any ram on their behalf.
“To guide against this, the board decided then, not even now, to collect the ram money and appointed an authorised agent that would go and slaughter for all Lagos pilgrims. In this operation, we gave them options. We said it is optional. If you don’t want to slaughter, you have other things to do to cover for it. You can go fasting. So you are free from the slaughtering of a ram. They also had the option of patronising any agent that they preferred,” he explained.
Alhaji Jebe said such malicious report is the figment of the imagination of the detractors, who are envious of the state’s achievements at the just concluded Hajj.
He said: “If you are doing well, your enemy will never be happy. They will stop at nothing to get at you because they don’t want you to record that success. They must have prepared for other areas, but maybe they discovered that all areas are well covered. So, the next thing to do is to use the media to damage our personalities.
“It’s so sad that people can be doing that, lying against fellow human beings, trying to destroy people that pilgrims are praying for. It’s sad, but it is in the system. News will come. You will come out to confirm or disclaim it. So, my own comment is, it is never and can never be true. They are just trying to tarnish our image, of which they cannot succeed.”
Alhaji AbdulGafar urged the reporters to verify from the pilgrims if they were forced to pay the money.
He said “We could have deducted the animal sacrifice money from their Basic Travelling Allowance (BTA) if we want to impose it on them, we didn’t do that. Just like the commissioner said, only 364 pilgrims paid out of 1,672. Does that connote compulsion as maliciously reported in the medium? We appealed to the media to always verify reports before rushing to the press.”