Why did Akufo-Addo release land for BoG building when people were dying in 2020? – Ablakwa

The Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has raised five crucial questions pertaining to circumstances surrounding the directive to execute an Executive Instrument (E.I) for the building of the $250m headquarters of the Bank of Ghana on the 12th October 2020.

According to him, it is baffling why the Bank of Ghanastarted procurement on January 4, 2020, and concluded on September 4 of the same year even without securing land.

The MP also fumed about why the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo affirmed the budget for the Bank of Ghana headquarters during the Covid-19 era while the nation was in crisis.

Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has been a staunch critic of the new Bank of Ghana headquarters over the funds allocated for the project.

In a Facebook post on Thursday, August 24, 2023, the MP for North Tongu asked five key questions seeking further clarification on why President Akufo-Addo exercised the executive instrument for the approval of the budget for the new Bank of Ghana headquarters in 2020.

Read the full text below:

This 12th October 2020 E.I. on land for the scandalous Bank of Ghana head office raises a few worrying questions:

1) Why did BoG hastily commence procurement on 14th January, 2020 and concluded by 4th September, 2020 when it had not secured land?

2) How did BoG manage to convince President Akufo-Addo during the peak of Covid when 320 Ghanaians had died and there were 48,055 confirmed COVID-19 cases by October 2020 that their new head office project was a priority which couldn’t wait for the pandemic to be over?

3) Did President Akufo-Addo have any special interest in this quarter of a billion-dollar project which started at US$81.8million warranting him to direct his Lands Minister to execute an E.I. on his behalf for an office and not a hospital, particularly at a time when Covid was killing many?

4) Is this revelation not inconsistent with President Akufo-Addo’s numerous “Fellow Ghanaians” addresses where he emphasized the focus of his government on saving lives and nothing else; not forgetting the President’s instructive words at the time: “We know how to bring back the economy but we don’t know how to bring back lives?”

5) Why was President Akufo-Addo’s public posture during COVID-19 different from his actual conduct behind the scenes when the cameras were switched off?