Taraba gets 1,457 Hajj seats

Ahead of the forthcoming Muslim pilgrimage to Saudi-Arabia, the National Hajj Commission has allocated 1,457 hajj seats to intending pilgrims in Taraba State.

The Executive Secretary, of the state Muslims Pilgrims Welfare Board, Alhaji Umar Leme who made this known in Jalingo while briefing journalists said the board has started receiving cash deposits of between N850,000 and N1 million for each seat from intending pilgrims in the state.

He disclosed that February 25 was deadline for intending pilgrims to pay their deposits to the Board or forfeit the seats earlier allocated to them.

According to the Executive Secretary, the deadline was imperative because the Board was expected to pay the Commission N800 million as part payment for all the seats allocated to the state on or before March 3, 2017.

He noted that the Commission recently presented a category A certificate to the Board, implying that the agency was well equipped with the necessary facility to operate.

All intending pilgrim, according to him must be adjudged to be of good behaviour by a guarantor whom he said must either be a Jumu’at Mosque Imam or a civil servant of Grade Level 12 and above.