Attack on Emir of Kano: Hajj commission disowns wanted terror suspect

The National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) has said that a suspected terrorist on the wanted list of security agencies, Babangida Baba Salihu, was not one of its staff. Salihu and others, now on the run, were declared wanted in connection with the January 19 attack on Emir of Kano, His Royal Highness, Alhaji Ado Bayero during which six persons were killed.
In a statement made available to Daily Sun yesterday and signed by NAHCON’s Head of Media, Malam Uba Mana, the commission said: “No staff of the commission, serving or retired, since its inception in 2007 and even back in the days of the Department of Pilgrims’ Affairs under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs bears that name.
“Information available to us showed that during a search at the suspect’s hideout by the police, a ‘passport attachment’ recovered from the place indicated that the said suspect was a 2010 pilgrim from Jigawa State. The passport attachment had the inscription of NAHCON and based on that the suspect was presumed to be a staff of the commission. “But the assumption was definitely erroneous. Passport attachment is simply a document that shows services rendered to a pilgrim in Saudi Arabia and is carried by every pilgrim.
So, having a passport attachment does not make the suspect an official of NAHCON, not even of Jigawa State Pilgrims’ Welfare Board,” the statement said. According to the commission: “Since the introduction of the e-passport by the Federal Government in 2009 as the only valid travel document for all Nigerian pilgrims, it was no longer possible to tamper with the inner pages of the pilgrims’ passport because of the embedded security features, as was the case in the past with the Hajj passport, whereby Saudi Arabian authorities cut out some pages from the pilgrim’s passport to enable them document services rendered to the pilgrims, such as transportation and accommodation within the Kingdom.
“In response to that, the commission, in conjunction with the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) introduced the ‘passport attachment’ to carter for that purpose and it is only valid for the Hajj of a particular year,” it added. NAHCON, therefore, disowned a recent media report (not Daily Sun), where the suspected terrorist was mentioned as a former staff of the commission, saying, “Nothing can be farther from the truth.”
SUN