Ghana’s Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Rashid Bawa has promised an incident free pilgrimage for Moslems this year. According to him government and the Chief Imam has made adequate preparations to avoid a recurrence of the controversy that has been associated with the pilgrimage. The problem he noted was the acquisition of an aircraft, but the Ambassador said an Interim Management Board (IMB) is already in preliminary discussions with Egypt Air who has the landing rights to air lift over 3000 pilgrims to Mecca. He said the IMB would meet the various Hajj agencies early enough to discuss issues about air fares and how they would be collected. In an interview with Joy FM’s Seth Kwame Boateng, the Ambassador said Government cannot completely wash its hands off the pilgrimage, as has been suggested from some quarters, adding that government is on the alert will ensure an incident free pilgrimage this year. But for government intervention, 2700 pilgrims who were last year stranded at the AFGO village would not have gone to Mecca. Story by Nathan Gadugah