The needless decision to construct a National Cathedral with a huge donation of prime Accra real estate has just gotten more expensive for the people of Ghana even though everyone keeps assuring us that it’s not government that is paying for the cathedral.
According to documents sighted by myjoyonline, the piece of land being cleared by government to host the building has on it a private IT firm who stands to make mega losses if moved at such short notice and are thus calling on government to pay millions of dollars before they surrender their land.
The government have served notice to the company of its intention to re-appropriate the land for the Cathedral but they have responded that the ‘sensitive’ nature of their business makes it remarkably expensive to relocate them at such short notice.
The land houses ‘sensitive and expensive’ IT infrastructure which serves numerous state institutions including the Bank of Ghana, CEPS, SSNIT, CSD, GSE, GRA and other companies both in Ghana and abroad.
The company argues that moving them at such notice would not only be super expensive (cost of millions of dollars) but would disrupt these crucial services they provide to the government’s own agencies.
According to the company, whilst government is allowed by law to take over any public or private land for its purposes; “our view being that, it being doubtful that the acquisition of our client’s interest in the property can be justified on any of the aforesaid grounds given the heterogeneous nature of the Ghanaian society in terms of religion.”
Thus whenever you hear someone bleat that government is not paying for the National Cathedral, simply point them to the enormous cost relocating the companies already on the land is going to incur.
Cost borne by the taxpayer – you and I – who can’t even go to hospital without a highly likely chance of not coming back home alive.
Source: GhanaCelebrities.Com