Ben Abdallah Band
Former Hajj Board Chairman, Alhaji Ben Abdallah Banda Esq, has urged the current board led by the Chairman of the interim Hajj Taskforce, Collins Dauda, to provide full context when addressing issues of legacy debt.
According to Alhaji Abdallah Banda, the statement made by Collins Dauda at the Hajj 2025 package announcement which suggests that the immediate past board members had mismanaged Hajj operations accruing debt of $4,859,250, was misleading.
While he agreed to the $4,859,250 debt inherited by the current board, Alhaji Abdallah Banda also revealed that at the beginning of the mandate of former President Akufo-Addo in 2017, they inherited a debt of $7.8 million from the previous Hajj managers in 2016 under the NDC administration.
“The above legacy debt included Four Hundred and Twenty-Five (425) fully paid prospective pilgrims who could not be airlifted to perform their Hajj in 2016, and were entitled to either a refund or rebooking for the subsequent Hajj seasons.
“Through the instrumentality of the then President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and Vice President Alhaji Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, the stranded persons were airlifted,” he said.
Alhaji Abdallah Banda affirmed that at the end of their tenure in 2024, a total debt of $4,859,250 is what was left behind as contained in the handing over notes, adding that the information was shared with the new administration in the handing over notes delivered to the Chief of Staff at the Presidency.
“The attempt therefore to refer to the current legacy debt without reference to the legacy debt inherited in 2017 is most unfair and unfortunate, because it does not represent a full disclosure of the genesis of the current legacy debt,” he added.
Alhaji Abdallah Banda mentioned that governance is a continuum inheriting both assets and liabilities, emphasising that indebtedness from organising Hajj arise as a result of various factors, the key being the fluctuations of the foreign exchange market.
“We call on the taskforce to always give the full historical antecedents of the legacy debt in order not to cause disaffection within the Muslim Community. The erstwhile Hajj Board wishes the current Hajj Taskforce well in this year’s Hajj operations,” he added.
BY Prince Fiifi Yorke