By Abdul-Ganiyy Akanbi <\/p>\n
A civil society organisation, CSO, the Independent Hajj Reporters, IHR, said it has uncovered alleged passport substitution in some states after the reopening of the portal for upload of pilgrims’ data in the ongoing registration process for the 2026 Hajj.<\/p>\n
Although the organisation withheld the identities of the affected states, it disclosed that available information indicated some officials of State Muslim Pilgrims\u2019 Welfare Boards, SMPWBs are allegedly collecting fresh international passports from intending pilgrims and charging amounts higher than the initial Hajj fare earlier announced by the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria, NAHCON.<\/p>\n
In a statement issued by the national coordinator of IHR, Ibrahim Muhammad, “the passports are reportedly being substituted with those already in the custody of the boards to enable data upload before the deadline.”<\/p>\n
“If confirmed, the alleged practice suggests an attempt to replace pilgrims who had already completed their payments with new entrants willing to pay higher sums, particularly in states that have already exhausted their allocated Hajj slots,” he stated.<\/p>\n
The IHR, therefore, called on NAHCON, SMPWBs, and other relevant authorities to intensify monitoring of the registration process across states to prevent abuse of the system.<\/p>\n
It also urged the intending pilgrims to remain vigilant and to be wary of any state agency still collecting new passports beyond its approved allocation, as such actions may indicate attempts to substitute already registered pilgrims.<\/p>\n
According to the organisation, this caution is consistent with NAHCON\u2019s recent public advisory, in which the commission warned the public against making fresh payments to any individual, group, or agency, stressing that payment for the 2026 Hajj has officially closed and that updates would only be communicated through its verified channels.<\/p>\n
It emphasized that the urgent intervention by NAHCON is necessary to protect the integrity of the Hajj registration process and to safeguard the interests of pilgrims who have already paid the officially approved Hajj fare.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Abdul-Ganiyy Akanbi A civil society organisation, CSO, the Independent Hajj Reporters, IHR, said it has uncovered alleged passport substitution in some states after the reopening of the portal for upload of pilgrims’ data in the ongoing registration process for the 2026 Hajj. Although the organisation withheld the identities of the affected states, it disclosed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5470,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[1590,2902,1623],"class_list":["post-11055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-religion","tag-authorities","tag-intensify","tag-monitoring"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11055"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11055\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11057,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11055\/revisions\/11057"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}