The immediate past chairman of the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON), Zikrullah Hassan, has condemned a recent online publication (Not Newsclick) accusing him of gross abuse of office and alleged that he was grilled by operatives of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) on Monday, February 26, 2024.
Hassan who spoke through his media aide, Shakirudeen Bankole, denied the allegation and said that at no time was he invited by the anti-graft agency for questioning on allegations of corruption or any related offence.
While acknowledging that officials of the agency examined the books of the commission when he was still in office, he said NAHCON’s relevant officials provided all answers to the queries raised by the EFCC operatives.
“On my honour as a muslim and a decent family man, I make bold to say that not for once did the EFCC operatives on investigation mission at NAHCON consider it necessary to query me. You can’t find any evidence of my interface with contractors nor running any financial transaction in place of the relevant officials. If they run their checks 10 times more, the result will remain same, that is, I don’t meddle with specialized responsibilities being a responsible professional myself,” he said.
Assuring the muslim ummah and the general public of his untainted record while in office, Hassan promised that his team of lawyers would soon seek redress against the publishers of the online portal for “indulging in reckless falsehood bereft of any iota of truth”.