<<Print>>

Government has justified the decision to evict some nine judges from their current official residence to make way for the construction of a National Cathedral scheduled to be built in Accra.

John Peter Amewu who was Lands and Natural Resources Minister told Joy FM Monday that the government had no issues with the proposed site for the edifice per the proposal by the Rev. Asante Antwi-led committee.

“We want to build [the national cathedral] in a strategic place, something that befits this country…and that is why we’re looking for a very prime area that will fit the status of the kind of building that the committee envisaged, otherwise we can put it anywhere,” Amewu argued.

Critics have questioned the rationale behind pulling down all buildings from the Ridge Circle to the Scholarship Secretariat, the Judicial Training Institute at East Ridge and the Passport Office for the take-off of the multipurpose Cathedral.
 
Other structures as well as some 10 six-bedroom bungalows built by the Judicial Service to house Court of Appeal Judges, will also be demolished before the take-off of the project which is scheduled as part of Ghana's 60th-anniversary celebrations.

These buildings are located in prime areas in Accra and in the case of the judges' residence, some of them were built only five years ago. But Mr. Amewu says an arrangement has been made to resettle them temporarily.
 
About 21 plush residential villas as well as a training facility for the Judicial Service, are to be built to replace the structures to be knocked down, the former Lands Minister stated.

John Peter Amewu

Mr. Amewu, who now heads the Energy Ministry, added that some $168,000 is to be spent on temporary accommodation for the judges for the next 18 months while permanent structures are constructed for them. 

According to him, the Judges, whose official residences have been affected and who have been served eviction notices, have no issues with the decision.

“We have never had a complaint from any of those judges that are going to be affected…” he told Joy FM.