File photo of pilgrims in Mecca
Ghanaian Hajj pilgrims from the northern sector of Ghana, who have arrived in Makkah, Saudi Arabia, for this year’s Hajj, have expressed their dissatisfaction over poor services being offered by the Hajj task force.
The Hajj task force set up by President John Dramani Mahama in place of the Hajj Board assured the Ghanaian pilgrims of a quality Hajj experience.
However, with almost half of Ghana’s nearly 5000 pilgrims in Saudi, following the departure of flights from the northern sector, Tamale, the pilgrims are seething with rage.
A number of them have taken to social media to express their frustrations, accusing the Hajj task force of not providing them value for money as they listed a number of challenges they are encountering in Makkah.
Some of such lamentations were captured in a viral video recorded by frustrated pilgrims who were part of those who flew from Tamale.
Speaking in Dagbani, the angry pilgrims frustrated by their conditions of living complained about poor accommodation which also said to be located far away from the Holy Mosque and warned their colleagues who yet to fly from Ghana to brace themselves for the worse services.
In another social media post, a renowned Islamic Cleric in Tamale, Sheikh Hashim Ibn, also expressed his frustrations over the same issue of poor services by the Hajj task force.
“I Paid GHC 62000 cash from my sweat for hajj 2025, I got there and eventually became a Da’awa committee member, helping pilgrims against my own schedule and the purpose I went there due to insufficient personnel from the committee I paid money to work,” he wrote.
“The worst of it, the hotels most of us are lodged are a total WACK, not to only talk about (its) distant nature from Haram (the Mosque), the hotel has 3 very Old lifts that can take only 5 people at a time for a building of 10 storey floors. Each floor has about 10 rooms and in each room hosts 4-5 pilgrims. Just imagine.”
“Multiple 5 people by 10 rooms, that’s about 50people in each floor, then multiply that by 10 floors. That’s about 500 people to use 2-3 lift that looks like an Oven (If all rooms should be occupied). I’m forcefully stacked with 4 other pilgrims in a single room without AIR-CONDITIONS, in a city with a temperature mostly more than 45 degrees Celsius”, the Tamale-based Islamic Cleric wrote.
He added the rooms, amidst heat, also have “only a fan that can wake the dead”.
“A single bathroom for about 8 to 10 people. Imagine spending a damn 3-4 weeks in this situation. I don’t know how they do it every year because this is my first Hajj, I only come here a couple of times for Umrah, but I had the best service in all.”
“Please quote me anywhere, pilgrims are not fine this Hajj.
Please don’t make this post a political one. I don’t have anything to do with politics!”, he lamented.
AME
