Agents association commends Hajj committee
The Ghana Hajj Agents Association has commended the National Hajj Committee, the government and the Office of the National Chief Imam for the smooth and successful organisation of the 2013 pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina.
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The agents acknowledged particularly the efforts of the Chairman of the committee, Alhaji Abdul Ra’uf Ibrahim Tanko, in ensuring that all paid pilgrims were airlifted to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to perform the annual religious rites without any hitch.
The Vice-Chairman of the association, Alhaji Mohammed Murtala Waziri, said in an interview that: “As the first port of call for Ghanaian pilgrims, the association has not received any complaint of a pilgrim stranded or being left behind, either in Accra or Saudi Arabia”.
According to him, the association did not record any unfortunate incident in the organisation of last year’s Hajj, unlike the situation in previous years when close to a quarter of paid pilgrims were left behind.
Alhaji Waziri said 2013 recorded one of the highest number of paid pilgrims of more than 5,450, adding that all of them were airlifted to Mecca to perform the Hajj.
Besides, more than 190 paid pilgrims who were left behind by a previous committee were airlifted, with a promise to give priority to the rest this year.
The agents said they were particularly impressed with the regular and broad consultations with the important stakeholders by the chairman of the committee before, during and after the pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
They also noted the commendation by President John Dramani Mahama and the National Chief Imam for the smooth and incident-free operations of the 2013 Hajj at the last Eid-ul-Adha prayers at the independence Square in Accra.
“His humility, transparent and regular consultations with all stakeholders have led to a very successful 2013 Hajj to which the committee has not had any bad press throughout the operations of last year’s Hajj,” they said.
They, therefore, appealed to the President to maintain the Ibrahim Tanko Committee to organise this year’s Hajj.