Kaduna State Governor Uba Sani has sacked Yusuf Yakubu Arrigasiyyu as the Executive Chairman of Kaduna State Pilgrims Welfare Agency.
Arrigasiyyu’s sack, according to a statement by the spokesperson of the governor, Muhammad Lawal Shehu Sunday evening, was “to ensure the success of the 2024 Hajj operations.”
Only last week, 21st CENTURY CHRONICLE reported how a cross section of officials in the Kaduna pilgrims board demanded Arrigasiyyu’s probe after Governor Sani set up a special task force to conduct a seamless hajj operation in 2024.
The task force’s major responsibility, according to Deputy Governor Hadiza Sabuwa Balarabe who inaugurated the task force, was to avert the untold hardship experienced by Kaduna state pilgrims in Saudi Arabia last year in the areas of accommodation, feeding, airlift, transport, among others.
Arrigasiyyu was replaced by Malam Salihu S. Abubakar (the task force chairman) as Executive Chairman of the pilgrims board, and he will exercise all the powers vested in the Executive Secretary of the agency.
Also, the Secretary of the task force Baba Ahmed-Rufai, will serve as the Administrative Secretary of the board. Other task force members — Imam Buhari, Maimuna Waziri, Aminu Kasimu, Prof. Muhammadu Mustapha-Gwadabe, AVM Muhammad Rabiu Dabo (rtd), and Ummakhukthum Jibril- Maigwari —will perform the functions of Board Members of the pilgrims board, the statement said.
The creation of the special task force is seen by many as vindication of the 2023 Amirul Hajj of the state and Emir of Zazzau Ahmad Nuhu Bamalli, who in an interview with VOA Hausa, lamented the hardship experienced by Kaduna pilgrims.
The monarch had described the state’s 2023 Hajj operation as a total failure, adding that the whole operation was in shambles considering the predicament that pilgrims from Kaduna State went through while at the Holy Land before they were evacuated back to Nigeria.
The traditional ruler explained how he and his delegation were subjected to unprecedented hardship before they were airlifted back to Nigeria.
Ambassador Bamalli said many Kaduna pilgrims were left stranded at the holy land in precarious conditions before they were eventually evacuated back to Nigeria.
It will be recalled that during the 2023 hajj, Kaduna pilgrims had accused the Arrigasiyyu, of acquiring 1,400-bed spaces in Kudai Zamzam, a mountainous neighbourhood far away from the Grand Mosque in Makkah.
The aggrieved pilgrims then called on Governor Sani and the State House of Assembly to investigate the accommodations and other services contracted for them by Kaduna ES Arrigasiyyu in Makkah.
In the same vein, Mr Arrigasiyyu also locked horns with the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) over his alleged refusal to give hajj slots to about 2,000 intending pilgrims who paid through the Hajj Savings Scheme (HSS).
Some staff of the Kaduna pilgrims’ board said the task force was timely, adding that the leadership of the board has been compromised. They accused Arrigasiyyu of “bastardizing the board and spending scarce resources of the board on media propaganda.”
The ES was also accused of dropping the name of the state governor in substituting credible and experienced hajj service providers with substandard ones, obviously for whimsical gains.
The board officials have urged Governor Uba Sani to conduct a forensic probe of the board’s finances, procurement process and contracts.
Arrigasiyyu has been redeployed to Kaduna State Environmental Protection Authority (KEPA) as Managing Director.
