New Hajj Board: Chief Imam was consulted – Gomda

Chief Imam Sheikh Osman Nuhu Sharubutu was consulted by the President in the reconstitution of the Hajj Board, Alhaji A R Gomda, Communications Director of the Board, has told Moro Awudu on Class91.3FM’s Executive Breakfast Show on Tuesday, 14 February.

On Monday, the Chief Imam’s spokesperson, Sheikh Aremeyaw Shaibu, said: “It appears to me that the board has been rashly composed without taking time to study the structure and the outcome of the work of the previous committee, so, we can learn the lessons from there. I would have wished that it would have been a bit more of looking at a structure, putting in place a certain interim Hajj Board that will not be directly involved in the management and then you put in place an interim management that would be accountable to the interim board of trustees so that there would be some form of accountability.”

He added: “Even with the Chief Imam’s office, as far as I know, I am not aware of any such consultation. I served on the advisory board of the National Chief Imam, the opportunity would have been for us to also see and know those people who have been put in place.”

Reacting to claim, Alhaji Gomda said the Hajj Board has “always been partisan, governments of the day have always picked the membership of the board, in, as usual, consultation with the office of the National Chief Imam, it has always been so”.

“This has not been different, it has been the same, the National Chief Imam is aware of the empanelling of members of the board and it isn’t everything that the spokesperson [Sheikh Aremeyaw] is privy to. I think this is one of the issues he hasn’t been privy to, so, what he has put out is not the true picture,” Alhaji Gomda explained.

The new board is expected to be sworn into office on Thursday at the Flagstaff House using the Holy Qu’ran with the Chief Imam as the presiding cleric.