{"id":66862,"date":"2025-05-29T11:46:17","date_gmt":"2025-05-29T11:46:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=66862"},"modified":"2025-05-29T11:46:17","modified_gmt":"2025-05-29T11:46:17","slug":"nigerian-pilgrim-honored-for-returning-lost-%e2%82%a68-2-million-cash-in-makkah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/05\/29\/nigerian-pilgrim-honored-for-returning-lost-%e2%82%a68-2-million-cash-in-makkah\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigerian Pilgrim Honored for Returning Lost \u20a68.2 Million Cash in Makkah"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Adenike Lawal<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In a remarkable act of honesty during this year\u2019s Hajj pilgrimage, a Nigerian woman, Hajiya Zainab from Plateau State, returned $5,000 (approximately \u20a68.24 million) to its Russian owner after finding the money at the Grand Mosque (Masjidul Haram) in Makkah, Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n<p>Verified reports from the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON), and the Plateau State Pilgrims Board confirmed the incident occurred on Tuesday, showcasing a rare display of integrity at one of Islam\u2019s holiest sites.<\/p>\n<p>Hon. Daiyabu Dauda, Executive Secretary of the Plateau State Pilgrims Board, praised Zainab\u2019s actions, describing her as a role model for all pilgrims.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe showed remarkable honesty by not only picking up the lost money but making sure it was safely returned to its rightful owner,\u201d Dauda said. \u201cIt\u2019s the kind of character we hope to see more of among pilgrims and indeed all Nigerians.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On a broader note, NAHCON disclosed ongoing discussions with Saudi authorities about resuming visa issuance for Nigerian pilgrims, following a suspension that has impacted many hopeful travellers.<\/p>\n<p>Fatima Sanda Usara, Assistant Director of Information and Publications at NAHCON, expressed optimism, noting that \u201cmultiple countries, including Nigeria, are actively engaging the Saudi government to reconsider the visa freeze.\u201d She added that the commission \u201cremains hopeful that a positive resolution is near.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This story of personal integrity alongside diplomatic efforts highlights a significant moment for Nigeria\u2019s Hajj operations this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Adenike Lawal In a remarkable act of honesty during this year\u2019s Hajj pilgrimage, a Nigerian woman, Hajiya Zainab from Plateau State, returned $5,000 (approximately \u20a68.24 million) to its Russian owner after finding the money at the Grand Mosque (Masjidul Haram) in Makkah, Saudi Arabia. Verified reports from the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON), [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":66863,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66862"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66864,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66862\/revisions\/66864"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}