Outgoing Minister for lands and natural resources has assured Ghanaians that the construction of the National Cathedral will not result in judges being homeless.
On 16th March 2017, President Akufo-Addo cut the sod for the commencement of work on the National Cathedral. The National Cathedral is a project of a coalition of churches in Ghana to build a non-denominational worship centre.
Contrary to rumours of the eviction of Judges for the cathedral to be built, the outgoing minister for Lands, John Amewu has stressed that judges are not going to be rendered homeless.
“Everything was taken into careful consideration in our decision to relocate the judges,” he said.
According to him, the decision to relocate the Judges came after almost a year and half of careful negotiations with the Judiciary, led by her ladyship the chief justice, to ensure that the process didn’t inconvenience the judges.
“I can tell you that the Judicial service is very happy with this development and the judicial service has an arrangement with the developer to replace some of their buildings”, he concluded.
It has been reported that six judges will be relocated as part of the judicial residence redevelopment project. The judicial residential redevelopment project is an already commenced project which is aimed at increasing the housing stock for the judiciary from 5 to 21 at a designated enclave in Accra.
As part of that project, temporary accommodation had already been arranged for relocating judicial service staff for a 1 year period.
Churches funding building of cathedral
According to sources within the government, the Christian community and corporate Ghana indicated their readiness to fund the National Cathedral.
The board of trustees consisting of various church leaders will raise funds locally and internationally for the funding of the Cathedral.
According to the source, the National Cathedral is not being built with Public funds. It will be built with voluntary contributions from the Christian community, philanthropists and with grants development partners.
In an interview earlier this year, the General Secretary for the Christian Council of Ghana, Reverend Dr. Kwabena Opuni Frimpong noted that the construction of the national cathedral is funded by churches and government’s role is just to facilitate the process.
“My understanding is that the churches are going to build this national cathedral, government is only going to facilitate it”, he said.
“The facilitation of government will come in the form of leadership through the process and a land free of encumbrances”, the source indicated.
The National Cathedral is designed to be Ghana’s mother church where all faith and denominations would gather and worship.
Location for Nat’l Cathedral Strategic
Contrary to opposition for the location of the National Cathedral, government has posited that the selected location for the national cathedral was for strategic reasons.
“All over the world, National Cathedrals have sited close to Centres of power and also in the centre of town for economic reasons” a source with the government disclosed.
According to the source, a broad consultation was done with the trustees, executives and at a point with the judiciary to relocate people living on the land where the cathedral is to be built.
The source stressed that in a bid to make the infrastructure a site that will attract massive tourism, the structure was targeted at a prime area that will fit envisaged status of the committee.
The Cathedral, which is a planned interdenominational Christian cathedral set to be built as part of Ghana’s 60th-anniversary celebrations, will allow for conferences, exhibitions, a 5000 seat auditorium for public events and a museum
The National Cathedral is formally designed with a seating capacity of 5000 people as against the international conference which can only seat 1400 people at a time.
Source: Ghana/Starrfmonline.com/103.5FM
