Member of Parliament for North Tongu Constituency, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, led some NDC MPs to ‘commission’ the unfinished National Cathedral project on Wednesday, March 6.
The act was a mockery of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) promise to complete the project and commission it on March 6, 2024.
Speaking to the media, Mr. Ablakwa and his colleagues demanded “a comprehensive report on how much it has cost the state to replace and compensate some owners of demolished properties and how much is still outstanding, considering that aggrieved demolished property owners such as Waterstone Realty have resorted to the court.”
The North Tongu MP described the project as the most expensive pit in the world, adding “We are demanding full accountability of what happened to our $58,141,509.52. We also want to know why the contractors abandoned this project for lack of payment two years ago.”
Furthermore, Mr. Ablakwa demanded immediate contract termination, arguing that the longer the project is postponed, the higher the cost to the government.
“We have to pay, there is a cost to this abandonment. We have to pay for the extension of time, we have to pay for standing time, and we also have to pay for abortive and real work costs due to the main contractor suspension,” he noted.
Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa demanded that the “Board of Trustees of the National Cathedral should be dissolved without delay. We also demand that the National Cathedral Secretariat should be immediately closed. So far this secretariat has received a staggering GHS225,962,500 it is a very expensive secretariat.”
