TheCable

Zikrullah Hassan, immediate past chair of the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON), says he was never invited by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over allegations of corruption.

In 2019, former President Muhammadu Buhari appointed Hassan as chairman of NAHCON.

In October 2023, Tinubu approved the appointment of Jalal Arabi as the acting chairman of NAHCON.

The president directed Hassan to proceed on a three-month pre-retirement leave, beginning from October 2023 and ending in January 2024.

Recently, some reports said Hassan was quizzed by EFCC officials at the agency’s head office in Abuja over an alleged 92 million Saudi Riyal fraud.

Reacting to the reports, the former NAHCON boss, via a statement on Thursday by Shakirudeen Bankole, his media aide, said EFCC officials only examined the books of the commission when he was still in office.

Hassan said officials of the commission provided answers to the questions raised by the anti-graft agency.

“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,” Hassan said.

“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 ten times more, the result will remain same. That is, I don’t meddle with specialized responsibilities being a responsible professional myself.”

He added that there is no “iota of truth” in reports that he was invited by EFCC.