The Okyenhene Osagyefuo Amoatia Ofori Panin II has expressed worries over the construction work on the interdenominational National Cathedral at Ridge in Accra which has come to a halt.
He stated that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo will be disgraced if the cathedral is not built.
Okyenhene made this known on Friday, December 9, 2022, when addressing the Board of Trustees of the National Cathedral in Kyebi, and said the cathedral will benefit Ghanaians not to travel to Israel to pray.
According to him, “He [Nana Addo] has to glorify the name of the Lord for how far He has brought him and build the cathedral to testify that he is grateful to God for making him President, there is no sweeter news as this.
“With the cathedral, there’ll be no need to travel to Israel, just in Accra, the cathedral will answer all your questions about Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth, and everything.”
“So I’m pleading with you all, let us not bring shame upon our country and the President, let us contribute to building the cathedral,” he added.
Months after the President cut the sod for work to start on the National Cathedral, very little had taken place since March 2022 when activities were halted.
Plans for the construction of the National Cathedral continue to generate lively debate, and although the government insisted that it will be funded by the private sector and serve as a multi-purpose national edifice but Ghanaians have raised concerns about its usefulness and cost.
Earlier, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, the Member of Parliament for the North Tongu constituency, accused Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta of breaching laws by withdrawing funds from the Consolidated Fund for the construction of the national cathedral.
He indicated that Ofori-Atta engaged in the act without the required parliamentary approval.
The Finance Minister was accused of “unconstitutional withdrawals from the Consolidated Fund in blatant contravention of Article 78 of the 1992 Constitution, supposedly for the construction of the President’s Cathedral,” thus demanding his removal from office.
But Ofori-Atta has insisted that he breached no law in releasing funds for the national cathedral project.
Appearing before an eight-member ad-hoc committee tasked to probe a censure motion against him, he said “I say with both humility and confidence that I have not breached the Constitution in making payments to support the construction of the National Cathedral of Ghana.”
He also denied claims by the proponents of the motion that he made an unconstitutional withdrawal from the Consolidated Fund to fund the project.
In an earlier statement, Ofori-Atta announced that GH¢339m has been spent so far on the cathedral project.
Also, the Finance Ministry, in a document submitted to the ad hoc committee that recently investigated Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta on seven allegations over which a censure motion has been filed against him, noted that a total amount of GH¢113,040,654.86 has been paid to Messers Sir David Adjaye and Associates, the consulting firm working on the cathedral.
Per the document, the government of Ghana’s contribution to the cathedral project was GH¢25 million paid in March 2022.
—Pulse—
