We are coming after you – Ablakwa warns US-based group for receiving GH¢28.2 million cathedral money

Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, the Member of Parliament for North Tongu has hinted that his next target after retrieving what he contends to be wrongful payment made to Reverend Kusi Boateng’s JNS Talent Centre is the Nehemiah Group owned by Cary Summers, a man reputed for the development of many religious projects of global significance.

Okudzeto Ablakwa on the Friday, December 20 edition of Metro TV’s Good Morning Ghana alleged that the US-based organization has received the GH¢28.2million from the state and that in his view the company received the monies for no work done.

He vowed to go after the owner of the firm, Cary Summers and ensure that the money paid the organization is reversed.

“There was no information at all on JNS Talent Centre. For every other transaction, there was document on them. Only two transactions were left out. The GH¢2.6m payment to JNS Talent Centre and then the GH¢28.2m to Cary Summers of the Nehemiah Group which is another scandal. Cary Summers, if he is watching, we are coming after him, he must refund our GH¢28.2 million, These two transactions had no supporting document,” he said.

Ablakwa, it will be recalled months back, first blew the alarm on the payment of the said monies to the Nehemiah Group for a fundraiser it organized on behalf of the National Cathedral.

“The Akufo-Addo Govt & Cathedral Secretariat gave out a colossal GH¢28.2million of taxpayer funds to Mr. Cary Summers, an American consultant & CEO of the Nehemiah Group who’s raised less than GH¢800,000 in 3 years,” he posted on his Twitter handle.

But the Cathedral in a press release denied the allegations with the position that the payment was made to the organization for a variety of activities.

“There is no contract for Cary Summers, but rather the Nehemiah group—of which Cary Summers, the founding President of the Museum of the Bible in Washington DC, and one of the world’s leading experts on religious theme parks, is the CEO.

“And this contract is for a set of consultancy services, the most important being the coordination of work on the National Cathedral’s Bible Museum of Africa, and the Biblical Gardens of Africa. As we have indicated, the integration of the Bible Museum –the largest in the world when completed – and the Biblical Gardens are aimed at transforming Ghana into a hub for international pilgrimage and tourism.”

“The work of the National Cathedral’s Bible Museum and Biblical Gardens involves some of the leading global firms, who between them have worked on some of the major museums in the world. They include: Kubik Maltbie; PRD; Cortina Productions; JMC.

“The payments to the Nehemiah group, therefore, is not to Cary Summers to organize a fundraiser, but to these world-class firms for their work on the Bible Museum and Biblical Gardens,” parts of the statement read.