North Tongu Member of Parliament Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has said a future National Democratic Congress (NDC) government will conduct a scientific survey on the National Cathedral project to sample the views of Ghanaians regarding whether or not the project is needed before a decision is taken to discontinue it or otherwise.
Asked whether an NDC government will continue the National Cathedral project, Mr Ablakwa while speaking on the New Day show with Johnnie Hughes on TV3 Tuesday, June 21 answered: “The National Democratic Congress, as our name implies, is a national party. We are democrats. We will go to the people and ask for their position. There will be a scientific way of hearing from the people and doing what pleases the people. Fortunately for our country, the majority are Christians, more than 70 per cent. We will go to them and ask them what should be our marching orders.
“Remember that this pledge was not even in the NPP manifesto. The president has sprung this huge surprise on us and it has become such a major financial burden. What it has destroyed in its wake, all of these demolitions, now we are looking for loans and we are all over the place. What the NDC will do is to go back to the people for the people to decide on what is to be done.”
He further said that it is a shame that the National cathedral project that is done in the name of the Holy Lord has been immersed in all these deception and disregard for the laws.
“We are unravelling a lot of mysteries. It’s been a shame that a project [National cathedral] that is done in the name of the Holy Lord has been immersed in all these deception and blatant disregard of our laws,” he said.
He earlier said in a statement that the project continues to drown in a sea of naked lies.
His comments come after the National Cathedral Secretariat clarified that the project was a public project, not private.
Bringing finality to the debate as to whether the project is state or privately owned, the Secretariat in a statement on Friday June 17 said “In his first official announcement on the project on March 6, 2017 the President underscored the nature of the project as a national cathedral for interdenominational worship services for the nation.
“Subsequent elaborations, led to three main reasons as the rationale for the project, namely i) gesture of thanksgiving ii) symbol of the Christian presence and contributions to the nation, and iii) a personal pledge to God. Of these three reasons, the personal pledge came to be associated with the Cathedral as a “private” project that needed to be developed without state support.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the National Cathedral is a National Monument, and thus a public, not private, project. Legally, the National Cathedral of Ghana is a state-owned company limited by guarantee, and was incorporated under the Companies Act, 1963 (Act 179) on July 18, 2019. We hope this brings to a closure the seemingly vexatious issue of whether the National Cathedral is a private or public initiative. The National Cathedral is a National Monument and Asset, and not a Private project. It is, however being developed in partnership between the state and the church,” a statement by the Secretariat on Friday June 17 said.”
Reacting to this in a statement on Tuesday June 21, Mr Ablakwa said “Incorporation documents I have obtained from the Registrar General exposes another false claim contained in the 7-page June 17, 2022 press release by the National Cathedral Secretariat and signed by Executive Director, Dr. Paul Opoku-Mensah.
“Contrary to the information provided in the said press statement (see page 5) and on the Nicodemusly updated national cathedral website (after we exposed the the Pastor Otabil deception), to the effect that all the Board of Trustees have been registered as Directors of the National Cathedral of Ghana; we note surprisingly, that the venerable Bishop Dag Heward-Mills, Presiding Bishop of the Lighthouse Group of Churches and the esteemed Rev. Prof. Cephas Omenyo, Former Moderator of the Presbyterian Church were not registered as directors on the incorporation date of 18th July, 2019.
“The two revered clergymen have at all material times been clearly left out, and substituted with the following names: Samuel Antwi and Kingsley Ofosu Ntiamoah. Why then is the National Cathedral Secretariat misleading the Ghanaian public and the world that all the published trustees are registered as directors?”
He added “One wonders if Bishop Dag Heward-Mills and Rev. Prof. Cephas Omenyo are aware that despite the public misrepresentations, their names have been patently omitted from the list of eminent registered directors?
“Another troubling falsehood we have detected is that even though the June 17 press release claims that the National Cathedral of Ghana is a ‘state-owned company’ and thus a ‘public and not a private’ entity, the incorporation documents in our possession reveals rather curiously that the National Cathedral of Ghana is registered as PRIVATE (see evidence attached).
“The list of falsehoods, misrepresentations, opacity, lawlessness and blatant corruption associated with this cathedral project is now a bottomless pit.
“Christians in Ghana may have to declare a 40-day intense fasting and prayer to purge and rescue Akufo-Addo’s drowning cathedral of lies.”
-By Laud Nartey|3news|Ghana
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