Hajj 2017: NAHCON shares 95,000 seats to states, others

The National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) has allocated a total 95,000 seats to the State Pilgrims Welfare Boards/Agencies/Commissions (SPWB), the Armed Forces and the Private Tour Operators for the 2017 Hajj exercise.

Nigeria was having 76, 000 overall seats for some years till last year due to the expansion of the Grand Mosque before the 20 percent global cut was restored and Nigeria gotten 95, 000 seat for the 2017 exercise.

A document showing the details of the distribution obtained by Daily Trust yesterday in Abuja showed that Kano State got the highest allocation of 6,602 while Imo State got 47 as the least among the states.

It also shows that the Armed Forces got 497 seats while the Tour Operators got 20,000 seat allocations.

The others states' allocations were Abia 62, Adamawa 2,097, Akwa Ibom  60, Anambra 63, Bauchi 3,213, Bayelsa 81, Benue 390, Borno 2,786, Cross River 60, Delta 107, Ebonyi 97, Edo 294, Ekiti 209, Enugu 65, FCT 2,657, Gombe 2,205 and  Jigawa 2,677.

The rest were Kaduna 6,327, Katsina 4,930, Kebbi 4,629, Kogi 838, Kwara 2,164, Lagos 3,957, Nasarawa 1,860, Niger 3,604, Ogun 1,353, Ondo 302, Osun 917, Oyo 1,363, Plateau 1,348, Rivers 375, Sokoto 5,571, Taraba 1,457, Yobe 2,256 and Zamfara 4,496.

A spokesman of the commission Abdullahi Hassan Adamu told Daily Trust that the commission would ensure that the 2017 hajj exercise is better than previous years including that of 20116 that has been adjudge among the best.

Source: Daily Trust