Emmanuel Thomas, Lagos
August 10, 2015 – There indications that staff working in the office of Chief of Staff in the Lagos State Governor Office in Ikeja are currently engaged in Hajj racket which will snowball into what would eventually be an embarrassment to the Lagos State Government unless something is done urgently to address the anomaly.
Correspondents covering office of the Lagos State Governor are entitled to at least one slot each year to enable them travel to cover activities of Lagos pilgrims.
But for the first time in the last 16 years, not even one of the Lagos State Governors Office Correspondent(LAGOCO) will be in Mecca for the annual Hajj this year.
This year, the correspondents were not given any slot. During enquiry, they gathered that Mr. Shola Fashina from LTV 8 who covers the Lagos State House of Assembly got the slot.
This is outside the 2 yearly slots which the pilgrims board gives to LTV and another 2 to Radio Lagos.
The development, now makes it impossible for any of the governor’s press crew to make the trip.
Executive members of LAGOCO became worried when they sensed delay in availability of the form. They tried to use top government officials to find out what actually happened but they got nothing. All they got was be patient.
But last Friday, they met with the Amirul Hajj and Chairman of the Committee, Alhaji AbdulLateef AbdulHakeem,who told them pointedly that all the forms for sponsorship from the Governor’s office including the one met for LAGOCO was submitted to office of the Chief of Staff.
He added that the form has already been filled and submitted for the Hajj without knowledge of the governor’s correspondents.
Shola Fashina confirmed that he collected and filled the form when he was contacted by a member of LAGOCO exco but declined to name who gave him the form.
When contacted again by a reporter, Fashina said he is a journalist and that he is not the one to be called to confirm that he collected form met for LAGOCO.
