More revelations drop as the Akufo-Addo cathedral scandal gets more putrefying — adding to the list of what the government is refusing to tell Ghanaians is the full cost of compensation for demolished properties and the consequential expenses involved in relocating state agencies that were situated on the land before the demolishing.
The member of Parliament for North Constituency, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa revealed on Newsfile earlier on Saturday that an estimated amount of not less than US$100million (about GHS800 million) would be used as compensation for all affected.
According to Hon. Ablakwa, the amount includes the cost of relocating the Malian Ambassador’s Residence to Airport Residential, outstanding payments to private business owners such as Waterstone Realty Ltd and ComSys Ghana Ltd, and the cost of constructing a new Judicial Training Institute at the proposed Cocoa Affairs Court land.
He said the Government and the Chief Justice are currently desperately looking for a US$ 50 million loan to construct a new Judicial Service Training Institute after Ghana’s reputable judicial training institute was razed to the ground to pave way for the construction of the national cathedral. Their negotiations with the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development have broken down, and they have now approached the World Bank.
Hon. Samuel Okudeto Ablakwa, therefore, stressed that there is the need to always remember to add US$100million to the latest figure of US$350million as the real cathedral cost. “A rather costly US$450million (GHS3.5billion) personal presidential pledge to God,” he added.
“If this was a functioning democracy, we the people should have first been engaged whether this is how we will want our government to spend a colossal GHS3.5billion, particularly during this period of debilitating economic crisis typified by a cost of living nightmare.”
Reacting to the statement released by the National Cathedral Secretariat, the lawmaker thanked the Secretariat for confirming all the revelations related to the National Cathedral so far.
“And as for that 7-page statement issued by the National Cathedral Secretariat, I can only thank them for confirming all the information I have put out so far, and for effectively justifying the national outrage which has only further escalated our resolve to fearlessly demand answers to the unresolved accountability issues and be even more determined in exposing all the unholy shenanigans.”
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