The Nigerian Christian Pilgrim Commission says it will adopt whistleblowing for staff of the commission involved in aiding the absconding of pilgrims.

This is contained in a communiqué at the end of a four-day retreat held in Jos, Plateau State and made available to journalists in Abuja on Saturday.

The communiqué revealed that all intending pilgrims should be thoroughly screened physically or through Zoom to beat visa application deadlines.

It said that a whistleblowing mechanism involving an effective screening system at different levels of its experienced operations would be implemented. All screening exercises would be led by senior and experienced officers to prevent pilgrims from absconding.

It was recommended that the forms used by State Christian Pilgrim Welfare Boards be standardised across different states and approved by the commission before usage.

“Screening officers should not decide based on the statement of accounts, as is on many occasions. That all state SCPWBs should be made to realise that pilgrims who have been airlifted by the commission to various holy sites should be seen as Nigerian pilgrims and not the limited view of seeing such pilgrims as belonging to a particular state,” it said.

The communiqué accordingly said that, in this respect, SCPWBs should work closely with the commission’s staff to ensure a smooth pilgrimage devoid of pilgrim absconding.

It further said that the authority of Federal Government officials (including NCPC staff) should be communicated by the executive secretary to all states during the conference of states meeting.

“Any secretary of SCPWBs who desires to guarantee an intending pilgrim should not be allowed to guarantee more than two pilgrims. Pilgrims to be so guaranteed; and where the SCPWBs desires to provide guarantee for more than two, then he should be made to submit a written undertaking to the Executive Secretary of the NCPC to that effect. The ES of NCPC will examine such and decide as appropriate in the circumstances.

“That staff on screening exercise to zonal offices should leverage the knowledge of the staff of such zonal offices of the local environment to guide them. That two staff members or at least one staff member who carried out the screening of any pilgrims should be made to accompany such pilgrims whenever they are travelling; this is to apply any knowledge gained during the screening for monitoring of those pilgrims.

“In this respect, the name of any suspected pilgrim should be compiled and given to staff members travelling with them to nip any attempt to escape on the part of the pilgrims,” it said.

The communiqué also explained that, in this respect, the ratio of staff in any bus should increase to curtail attempts at escaping.

It said staff on screening assignments should be thoroughly tutored on the art of report writing to be able to capture details of the screening exercise and minimise absconding.

“Accordingly, a staff member who delays submitting reports after screening will be thoroughly disciplined in line with existing rules and regulations. Intelligence gathering on pilgrims with two passports should be intensified.

”Pilgrims renewed passports should be double-checked intensely to ensure that they do not submit the expired passport while still using the valid passport to aid abscondment. In this respect, any pilgrim submitting an expired passport should be automatically seen as a potential absconder.

“That, in respect of the above, the issuance of visas on passports to staff of the commission is deemed to enhance their relevance and ease of movement for such staff members.

“That the commission will embark on continuous re-evaluation of screening reports and the list of names sent for visa procurement,” the communiqué stated.

(NAN)