By P.K.Yankey
Sekondi (W/R), July 8, GNA – The Western Regional Zongo Youth Chief, Alhaji Rufai Tanko Nuhu, has called on the Ghana National Hajj Board, led by Alhaji Ben Abdallah, to immediately reduce the fares for Hajj pilgrimage in Ghana.
He also urged the Hajj Board to improve upon the services rendered to Ghanaian pilgrims during the annual religious ritual in Saudi Arabia.
This was in a statement issued and signed by Mr. Tanko Nuhu and copied to the Ghana News Agency in Takoradi after his return from the holy land of Mecca to the perform Hajj.
Chief Alhaji Tanko Nuhu recounted how Ghanaian pilgrims even have to cue to attend to nature’s call Mina, ( a small city in the Kingdom where the Hajj rituals begin), as so inhumane and unfair, since each pilgrim paid a whopping GHS75,000 to the Hajj board for the trip, an amount he considered abnormally high, compared to what he paid as a private pilgrim to Saudi Arabia.
Chief Rufai Tanko Nuhu emphasized that his visa fees, air ticket, and hotel accommodation for his entire stay in the holy land cost him not more than GHS 45,000.00, and therefore wondered about the rip-off on the poor pilgrims perpetuated by the Hajj board.
The statement said the call by former President John Mahama to reduce the Hajj fares drastically, should he be voted into power, is feasible and a step in the right direction.
The statement called on the Muslim Community in Ghana, as well as their leaders, to speak up against the high fares charged by the Hajj board, to be reviewed downward, to enable as many Muslims as possible to fulfill the sacred religious obligation of a lifetime.
GNA