A major budget scandal has rocked Nigeria’s Senate, as the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs has been accused of illegally inserting ₦5 billion into the 2025 budget of the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria, NAHCON, under a suspicious line item titled “Hajj Support.”
It was disclosed that the unauthorized funds were added without being tied to any specific project or expenditure, raising serious concerns about possible embezzlement.
NAHCON’s total approved budget stands at ₦7.63 billion, comprising ₦2.23 billion in recurrent costs and ₦5.4 billion allocated to capital projects—yet this controversial ₦5 billion appears to fall into neither category.
Internal documents show that this budget padding was also mirrored in the Nigerian Christian Pilgrims Commission’s 2025 budget, where another ₦5 billion was dubiously labeled “Pilgrims Support.”
A leaked letter dated April 24, 2025, and signed by Usman G. Gubio, the Director and Clerk of the Senate Committee, details how the ₦5 billion was to be shared: ₦2 billion for the committee and ₦3 billion for NAHCON. The letter, referencing “National Assembly’s Insertion in the 2025 Appropriation Act,” was marked confidential but has since surfaced in media investigations.
The committee is chaired by Senator Abubakar Musa Bello, a two-term former governor of Niger State. According to sources inside NAHCON, this is not the first case of alleged budget manipulation involving the commission, but it is the most substantial in monetary value. Similar fraudulent entries in past budgets reportedly ranged in the hundreds of millions.
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In 2022, for instance, ₦382 million was embedded in the NAHCON budget for questionable items like ₦127.5 million for “constituency vehicles” for lawmakers, and ₦255 million for vague “Hajj Operational Support” expenses.
A senior NAHCON staffer, speaking anonymously, described the corruption as a “collaboration between greedy lawmakers and willing NAHCON leaders,” while another noted the commission used to operate independently without federal funding during the Buhari administration.
The scandal has triggered outrage among religious leaders and civil society groups. Sheikh Isma’eel Muhammad Bello, a prominent Islamic scholar, called the alleged fraud “an assault on Islam and the Nigerian Muslim community.”
Both the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, have been urged to launch full investigations.
The EFCC has confirmed that a travel agency linked to the alleged fraud is already under investigation.
There was no clarification from NAHCON’s Information department at press time.
Crediblenewsng.com
