Judges Pack Out! For National Cathedral

The nine Court of Appeal Judges whose homes were earmarked for demolition for the construction of the National Cathedral have begun relocating.

They are Justices, F. Kusi Appioh; Mariama Owusu; Clemence J. Honyenuga; Avril Lovelace-Johnson and Margaret Welbourne.

The others are Justices Saeed Kwaku Gyan; Lawrence L. Mensah; Gbiel S. Suurbareh and Anthony Oppong.

Occupants of other residential facilities in the enclave have also begun packing out their belongings following notices served on them to vacate the place even as the Supreme Court hears the CPP’s James Kwabena Bomfeh’s application to halt the process.

Other Homes

The government claims that it has rented alternative expensive bungalows for the Judges to relocate temporarily while it begins construction of over twenty new bungalows on a different land at Cantonments in Accra to be handed over to the Judicial Service in 2020 in replacement for what it is going to destroy.

The residence of the judges, the Judicial Training Institute at East Ridge, the Scholarship Secretariat and the Passport Office will have to make way for the 5,000-seater National Cathedral which has been a subject of public controversy.

Government wants the building constructed to mark Ghana’s 60th anniversary, explaining that it is to be used for formal state occasions of a religious nature, such as presidential inaugurations, state funerals, and national thanksgiving services.

The Cathedral will sit around a 14-acre garden and will have chapels, a baptistery, a music school, an art gallery, a Bible Museum and Documentation Centre.

No Resistance

Deputy Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Benito Owusu Bio, who gave the hint of the judges’ relocation said none of the judges whose homes are to be affected, has objected to their relocation despite media reports.

He said the government, being the custodian of the land, has no issues with the proposed site for the edifice per the proposal by the Rev. Asante Antwi-led Committee supervising the construction of the cathedral.

Speaking on Adom FM’s Morning Show-Dwaso Nsem, yesterday, Mr. Owusu Bio expressed surprise about the brouhaha over the siting of the cathedral.

“We have never had a complaint from any of the judges that were going to be relocated,” the Deputy Lands and Natural Resources Minister stated.

Mr. Owusu Bio said the government intends to build the national cathedral in a strategic place, something that will befit this country hence the search for a prime area to fit the status.

By: Jeffrey De-Graft Johnson