Supreme Court Gives Akufo Addo Greenlight For over US$ 100 mil Cathedral

The Ghanaian Supreme Court in a rather strange unanimous ruling, has dismissed an application for an injunction on the irksome construction works on President Akufo Addo’s National Cathedral in Accra.

Businessman, Alfred Holme had dragged the government to court arguing for the  Akufo Addo administration to stop construction work on the prime 14-acre land at Ridge in Accra for the over US$ 100 million National Cathedral.
But today, Tuesday, February 18, 2020, the seven-member Supreme Court panel presided over by the newly appointed Chief Justice, Justice Anin Yeboah threw out the application saying, provisions have been made by the law to provide needed compensation if it rules in the substantive case.
Alfred Holms had argued that the construction should be halted till the substantive case of whether the land could be given out by the government for the construction of a Christian edifice or what it was leased out to the government for decades ago.
The ruling means that the preparatory work for the construction of the National Cathedral which was being done clandestinely can now continue in full swing at the blessing of the court.
The 5,000-seater edifice which has been dubbed as a “Cathedral of lies” will force an already overstretched government to fork out more than US$ 20 million for a project that has received widespread public condemnation.
Already, several sensitive public installations such as the Passport Office, the Judicial Training School, plush Bungalows for Appeals Court judges and a sensitive government data centre have been demolished to make room for the Christian event centre which has been confirmed to be a personal project of President Akufo Addo.
 
After more than one year of vehement denials, the Akufo Addo administration recently finally admitted that Ghanaian taxpayers will be squeezed to part with the huge funds and public resources required for the project.
 
On November 22, 2018, Mr. Holm filed a suit to invoke the Supreme Court to declare as unlawful the construction of the Cathedral because the Ridge land which the cathedral is to be situated was compulsorily acquired under Section 3 of the Public Lands Ordinance of 1876 (Cap. 134) from the Osu Stool by virtue of Certificate of Title dated November 29, 1910, for residential purposes for public officers only. To that effect, that land has been used solely for public purpose.
 
The litigant insist that per the ordinance that took the land from the Osu stool, a Cathedral that is a quasi-private property cannot be situated on that land.
 
One of the declaration being sought by the plaintiff includes barring the President of the Republic from converting the Ridge land from the purpose to which it was acquired from the Osu Stool on November 29, 1910.
 
The plaintiff also wants the court to determine that if the Ridge land is no more going to be used for the purpose it was originally taken from the Osu people in Accra, then the Osu traditional stool should be given the first option of buying it back, instead of auctioning it off to the Christian community for their National Cathedral.