Audit Hajj Board – Chief Imam

The National Chief Imam Sheikh Dr. Osmanu Nuhu Sharubutu has called for immediate auditing of activities of the Hajj Board.

The call comes in the wake of a demand by the Northern Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) for the sacking of the chairman of the Hajj Board, Sheikh IC Quaye for causing “a lot of mess and disaster” in the organization of Hajj since the NPP assumed power.

Last year, a member of the communication team of the Hajj Board Zakaria Rahman was hauled before the police for collecting money from prospective pilgrims who could not travel to Mecca.

Four women have reported Rahman to two separate police stations in Accra – Airport and Nima Police Stations – over his inability to acquire Visas and flight tickets for them to travel to Saudi Arabia to observe the Holy pilgrimage this year.

Rahman allegedly took GH¢11,800 each (GH¢23,800) plus passports from two of the four women, promising to facilitate their travel to the Holy Land but went AWOL till the Hajj was over.

Speaking to Starr News on the recent development at the Hajj Board, the spokesperson of the National Chief Imam, Sheikh Aremeyaw Shuaib bemoaned that “across the different political dispensations the Hajj operation has been affected by elements of corruption, lack of accountability and transparency.”

Calling for immediate auditing of activities of the Board, he said: “I’m yet to see any instance where the accounts of any of the Hajj boards have ever been audited and the reports made public for us.”

According to him “because politicians have been involved in it, it has been made so difficult for the right to be able to get involved and be as transparent and accountable as possible to the Muslim public.

“I think this is what’s accounting for the [alleged corruption].”