The Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has given out approximately $186,800 to make up for the shortfall in the Travel Basic Allowance of Hajj pilgrims from the state.

The state Commissioner for Home Affairs, Olanrewaju Layode, disclosed this while addressing the fifth and last group of pilgrims prior to their departure from the state on Saturday.

According to a statement credited to Layode and signed by the ministry’s Assistant Director of Public Affairs, Taofeek Lawal, about 1,868 pilgrims had $100 shortfall each due to forex instability.

The commissioner stated that although $500 had earlier been announced as a BTA for each pilgrim, this amount was later lowered by the Nigerian Central Bank and National Hajj Commission after many pilgrims, particularly those in the second batch, had received their allowance in full.

The commissioner went on to say that the governor’s action was intended to allay the fears of the pilgrims , who had characterised the cutbacks as “unfair and unacceptable.”

The statement partly read, [s]“Honourable Layode, who is also the Amir-ul-Hajj, told the pilgrims that immediately the attention of Mr. Governor was drawn to the development, he, in his kind-heartedness and magnanimity, approved the payment of the $100 shortfall for each of the 1,868 pilgrims, pending the resolution of the matter by both NAHCON and the CBN.[/s]

“He also reiterated that Governor Sanwo-Olu, being a promise keeper, would keep his promises by paying the cost of the Hadaya (sacrificial) ram, ziyyarah (visitation) to historical sites in both Madinah and Makkah, as well as monetising the Ihram clothes for each of them. He urged them not to pay anybody for the aforementioned items.”

Racoon:
WTF! What the hell with using state or Nigerian monies to fund Islamic religious pilgrimage? Are the Christian pilgrimage and traditional faith being funded this way too? This shit has to be totally stopped.

The NASS is totally useless and dead anyway. Otherwise impeachment proceedings ought to be commenced against any governor or president that use state scarce resources for this rubbish

CosmeticChemist:
Waste of public fund !

Money that should be directed to better things like agriculture to feed the hungry masses is being spent on hajj.

malali:
He is telling the other states what to do........lol

Racoon:
WTF! What the hell with using state or Nigerian monies to fund Islamic religious pilgrimage? Are the Christian pilgrimage and traditional faith being funded this way too? This shit has to be totally stopped.

The NASS is totally useless and dead anyway. Otherwise impeachment proceedings ought to be commenced against any governor or president that use state scarce resources for this rubbish

Racoon:
WTF! What the hell with using state or Nigerian monies to fund Islamic religious pilgrimage? Are the Christian pilgrimage and traditional faith being funded this way too? This shit has to be totally stopped.

The NASS is totally useless and dead anyway. Otherwise impeachment proceedings ought to be commenced against any governor or president that use state scarce resources for this rubbish

AbuTwins:
Hajj is a very important Pillar of Islam that is obligatory upon the rich and capable Muslims among us.

If you are not rich plus capable it is not obligatory for you to go!

May Allah enrich us to be able to go there with our families devoid of any government interventions!

Racoon:
WTF! What the hell with using state or Nigerian monies to fund Islamic religious pilgrimage? Are the Christian pilgrimage and traditional faith being funded this way too? This shit has to be totally stopped.

The NASS is totally useless and dead anyway. Otherwise impeachment proceedings ought to be commenced against any governor or president that use state scarce resources for this rubbish

Racoon:
WTF! What the hell with using state or Nigerian monies to fund Islamic religious pilgrimage? Are the Christian pilgrimage and traditional faith being funded this way too? This shit has to be totally stopped.

The NASS is totally useless and dead anyway. Otherwise impeachment proceedings ought to be commenced against any governor or president that use state scarce resources for this rubbish

helinues:
Another waste of resources.

How many jobless Lagosians would that amount empower?

I actually don't see any sense in where people would travel all away from Nigeria to Saudi just to go and stone one invisible devil when the real devil ( the politicians are there to stone), oh I forgot, they have eating dodo as per this news, we can't hear ododo from them

AbuTwins:
Hajj is a very important Pillar of Islam that is obligatory upon the rich and capable Muslims among us.

If you are not rich plus capable it is not obligatory for you to go!

May Allah enrich us to be able to go there with our families devoid of any government interventions!

PlasmaTV:

Go for Hajj on your PERSONAL RESOURCES.
Didn't Tinubu use 90b to subsidize it recently? In a country that's POOR, subsidizing religion is insanity.

YesDaddyTill203:

If you can't afford it, then don't go. I'm a Muslim but I don't support Governor spending public money on pilgrimage. Same way I'm against thise SE Governors always using public funds for building churches and other church activities all while trying to curry favour with the church. It's all about politics.