Guarantors of Christian pilgrims who abscond from the Holy land will have to pay the sum of N7million among other penalties for failing to carry out their due diligence before guaranteeing intending Pilgrims.
The fine, the FCT Christian Pilgrims Welfare Board, says is part of measures it has employed to prevent human trafficking and other illegalities Pilgrims may be tempted to indulge in.
The director of the board, Dabara Vingo, said the FCT administration will also publish the name and faces of such guarantors in national dailies to serve as deterrents to would be traffickers.
Vingo told journalists over the weekend that the board also engages the services of several security operatives to mounts intelligent surveillance on the pilgrims at all points.
All these, Vingo said, are part of watertight arrangements to avoid incidences that could portray government in a bad light.
In his words, “This is to prevent abscondment as it is a dent to the image of the country, a dent to FCT, and a dent to this very board as a whole.
“There is a penalty if an abscondment is recorded as it is mandatory for a guarantor to pay N7million for standing for a pilgrimage to travel. Such a guarantor name will be published as a human traficker on one of the nations dailies with visual identity shown to the public. The third penalty comes from the board. For not doing due deligience to the core, such a person may be bared from partaking in a government organized privilege for 3years.”
The director stated that while cases of abscondment has been drastically reduced, the board is not taking chances in sparing any act that can hinder peaceful pilgrimage processes.
According to him, “this last pilgrimage was very successful. We went and came back with same numbers of Pilgrims.
“We achieved this through our pilgrimage activities. Even if you have the money and we give you the package cost, we don’t just accept your money and allow you to go. We subject all intending Pilgrims to rigorous screening.
“Once an intending pilgrims submit their filled forms, we start screening to determine their intents, even in their absence.
“We have operatives from the Department of State Security the Police, Civil Defense, the Immigration and other relevant agencies that will investigate the persons.”
