National Hajj Committee contest freezing of accounts

1/11/2010

Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru
THE Accra High Court will on Wednesday, November 3, 2010, hear a motion filed by the National Hajj Committee (NHC) praying the court for an order for a stay of execution of its earlier order to freeze the committee’s accounts.
The court last week attached the committee’s bank accounts, following an application by one Alhaji Afaa Akeem, for the recovery of $130,000, being a loan he advanced to the committee.
Alhaji Akeem had also demanded interest on the loan at the commercial rate from November 24, 2008 till the date of final payment.
In his statement of claim, Alhaji Akeem had averred that on November 21, 2008, the chairman of the Interim Hajj Management Committee (IHMC), Alhaji Mohammed Muniru, approached him on behalf of IHMC for a soft loan of $130,00, which it needed to advance Egypt Airlines, which had been contracted to lift pilgrims to the 2008 Hajj.
Upon his agreement, plaintiff said a loan agreement was accordingly executed between him and the IHMC on November 22, 2008 for a total sum $130,000, which the plaintiff released to the IHMC.
It said the defendant reneged in repaying the loan by the close of November 24, 2008 as agreed upon.
In its statement of claim in the substantive case, however, NHC said it was constituted in June, 2009 and was not a registered entity under the laws of Ghana.
It said it was a group of persons tasked by potential pilgrims to organise Hajj pilgrimage for and on their behalf.
According to the statement, upon successful organisation of the 2009 pilgrimage by the NHC, Muslims who intended to undertake the 2010 pilgrimage contacted the committee and asked them to organise the 2010 Hajj on their behalf.
It said the NHC took monies from potential pilgrims and deposited same at Intercontinental Bank branch at Castle Road, Accra, for a successful organisation of the intended pilgrimage.
“We are not members of the Ghana Hajj Committee and neither are we successors in title of the Ghana Hajj Committee. We do not know the plaintiff. We have never entered into any contract or business relationship with him and we are not indebted to him in any way,” the statement went on to say.
It said as the names suggested, Ghana Hajj Committee was a registered entity under the laws of Ghana and was entirely different from NHC, which was not registered under the laws of Ghana.
“Ghana Hajj Committee, being a registered legal entity, is still in existence and same can be attached in execution of the judgement obtained against it,” it added.
The statement said the NHC had not been served with any writ of summons or any process in relation to the above titled suit.
“It has come to the notice of NHC that its current account with Intercontinental Bank, Castle Road branch, Accra, has been attached wrongfully in execution of the judgement on a debt and an account belonging to the NHC and Ghana Hajj Committee has nothing to do with the account at Intercontinental Bank and signatories to the account are members of the NHC and not the Ghana Hajj Committee.