Three thousand Moslems are expected to embark on this year’s pilgrimage to Mecca, with each paying an amount of $3,100. The Chairman of the Interim Hajj Management Committee (IHMC) Alhaji Lumina Mohammed Muniru disclosed this at a press briefing held in Accra on Monday. According to him the committee had already finalised arrangement with the Saudi Government on the number of pilgrims, and is in the process of securing accommodation facilities for them. He said the IHMC has already secured some accommodation in Mecca and Medina, and had made some initial deposits, but reckons a demolishing exercise in Karba will complicate the accommodation problem. “We have secured accommodation in Mecca, and in Madina, we have made deposits in Mecca, there is a lot of demolishing exercise in Karba where we will perform most of the rites, the demolishing exercise has created shortage of houses in the region.” Alhaji Muniru assured pilgrims of a successful, trouble free pilgrimage to Mecca this year. These revelations come at a time when the IHMC is in collision course with the Hajj Council over who has the authority to organise the pilgrimage. The IHMC was formed at the behest of Chief Imam Sheikh Nuhu Sharabutu, but the Hajj council, says the IHMC has no mandate to do so. The Chairman of the Hajj Council, Alhaji Mohammed Kamil Mohammed only recently accused members of the IHMC of wanting to take his life after criticising the authority of the committee.