A R Gomda undermining Hajj Board – I.C Quaye

The Chairman of the National Hajj Board, Sheikh I.C Quaye has accused the Director of Communications of the Board, A.R Gonda of undermining the organization saying he[Gomda] is running a ”Board outside the Board.”

According to him, A.R Gomda has arrogated to himself certain powers and taking actions not sanctioned by the Hajj Board, a development he [Sheikh I.C Quaye] believes could adversely affecting the Hajj Board.

The Ghana Hajj Board has been in the news lately for the wrong reasons. One of its communication’s officers Zak Rahman, has confessed to to have collected monies from prospective pilgrims who could not travel to Mecca but failed.

Rahman allegedly took Gh¢11,800 each (Gh¢23,800) plus passports from two of the four women who have lodged complaint at the Airport Police Station, promising to facilitate their travel to the Holy Land but went AWOL till the Hajj was over.

A board member of the Ghana Hajj Board popularly known as Heavy Dee is also said to have lost his cool during the Holy pilgrimage and slapped a female pilgrim in Saudi Arabia.

Speaking to Fiifi Banson on Anopa Kasapa on Kasapa 102.5 FM Wednesday, Sheikh I.C Quaye accused A.R Gomda of being behind the leaking of some of these issues about the Hajj Board into the public domain instead of trying to manage information flow.

”If you look at those people trying to cause commotion, Gomda is involved, what kind of character is this? He [Gomda] claims the Board is not working and that I’m not able to hold them to check so the Board must be resolved. He goes out to say that the Board has dissociated itself from a statement when he’s not even spoken to the Board, is that how to work as a communications person? He’s creating confusion for himself and the Board and we’ll not allow that….he’s not a correct man.

This man has never been to Hajj and was not at this year’s Hajj but he’s talking to the media about what happened there without consulting the Board members who made trip.”

But A.R Gomda has dismissed the accusations leveled against him by Sheikh I.C Quaye describing them as baseless and must be ignored by the public.

”If I’m not a Board member, how can I run a parallel Board. Sheikh took issue with some of us when we floated a Hajj Board platform with a view to facilitating information flow among us. Unfortunately, Sheikh is not whatsapp compliant so when we deliberate there informing ourselves on when we have meetings, he doesn’t see it. I mean how can we run a board on a platform when some of us are not Board members.

A.R Gomda further denied putting issues about the Board into the public domain to tarnish its reputation, saying ”This is unfortunate, why will I go undermining an organization whose image I’m supposed to manage.”