Freetown — Executive members of the Sierra Leone Hajj Committee have called on the government not to monopolize the Hajj programme.

Speaking to the press Saturday at the committee's headquarters on Fourah Bay Road in Freetown, chairman of the group, Alhaji Ahmed Swarray-Deen said it is the right of every individual to go to Hajj and that the programme should not be monopolized by government.

He recalled that under the reigns of the late Dr. Siaka Stevens, they were given a land at 42 Bai Bureh Road to facilitate the programme for those coming from the provinces to attend the Hajj. He said this is not the first time government is interfering in the programme.

He said the NPRC took over the programme but later handed it back to them, so did the SLPP through the ministry of Social Welfare but that they did not interfere with the federation. "We will protest to government that they must not monopolize the programme," he said, adding that the Sierra Leone Hajj Committee comprises of nine Muslim groups.

Alhaji Swarray-Deen said it is unfair for citizens of the country to be denied the right to associate, worship and to assemble which is entrenched in the constitution. On the issue of royalties, he said, it is paid in Jeddah three days after they had landed in the holy land.

For his part, Alhaji A.B.S. Janneh said no government should interfere with the Hajj programme. "It is our right to take people to Mecca to perform the Hajj," he stressed, adding that it is not the duty of government to take money from the consolidated fund to finance the programme as Sierra Leone is a secular state.

According to Alhaji Janneh, they did not see any reason why government should criticize the committee's fare as being high when they are only charging US$3,800 for all the processes, while the government is charging US$3,700.

Deputy Minister of Social Welfare, Gender and Children Affairs during an interview over SLBC/TV on the Lunchtime programme, said government had decided to take such a decision because of incidents that happened in 2008 and the other year in which President Koroma had to pay for some of the pilgrims to make the Hajj.