National Cathedral Secretariat claps back at Ablakwa

Following the release of the second stanza of what he said is a series of releases to expose the illegalities surrounding the National Cathedral, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has been squarely responded to by the Secretariat.

In response to the Lawmaker’s second release on Thursday, May 4, 2023, the National Cathedral Secretariat through its Executive Director Dr Paul Opoku-Mensah has released a counterstatement to nullify the MP’s claims.

According to the statement, Ablakwa’s “Episode 2 of the American Edition of ‘National’ Cathedral Scandals” is “prefaced, once again, by such lack of knowledge of the US system”. He added that is “embarrassing” to see that coming from a member of parliament who also is a Ranking Member of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the house.

“As a Ghanaian, I find it extremely embarrassing to see these expressed by the Ranking Member of Foreign Affairs in the Country’s Parliament. The main body of Episode 2, however, is the malicious accusation that the National Cathedral is guilty of the serious crime of “identity theft” in the registration of the National Cathedral Foundation in the USA,” Dr Opoku-Mensah said in the statement.

Explaining what the Secretariat calls a “distortion”, the statement said Ablakwa “In arriving at this so-called identity theft….distorts the information on the registration documents by taking the Taxpayer ID number: 86-3859197 and disingenuously changes it to the social security number, SSN: 863-85-9197 belonging to the deceased Jose Salgado”. That the statement said was the basis on which the lawmaker accused the Secretariat of “Identity Theft”.

“But, this distortion is neither the result of an accident nor of ignorance. It reflects the modus operandi of the MP, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa. All his so-called ‘National Cathedral scandals’ are distortions of information on the project!”

Reaffirming its stance that the project is established on integrity, contrary to the MP’s claims of corruption and illegalities, the statement said the “misinformation and distortions on the National Cathedral project” will be exposed.

“As we have consistently argued, and repeated in our Press Release of on May 3, 2023, “the National Cathedral Project has been implemented with integrity, and with no criminality. As with the recklessly populist and reputationally-damaging accusations of the McCarthy era in the USA, the misinformation and distortions on the National Cathedral project will – ultimately – unravel!”