Duncan-Williams, Eastwood Anaba Resign From Nat’l Cathedral Trustees

The general overseer of the Action Chapel International, Archbishop Nicholas Duncan William and the President of the Eastwood Anaba Ministries, Rev Eastwood Anaba, have resigned from the Board of Trustees of the National Cathedral.

They communicated their resignation in a joint letter to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on October 12, 2023.

This comes ten months after a call by the two to have the funds and expenditure of the National Cathedral project audited.

According to the letter, their call was ignored as well as subsequent audience requests with the President.

A part of their letter read, “Despite our prayers, best hopes and wishes, unfortunately, a needed audit to help restore public confidence and trust in this consequential project has not been enacted to the best of our knowledge. Since January 2023, we awaited news to no avail, regarding the finding of the audit.”

Their decision to resign, according to them, is with recourse to “conscience and faith”.

“We therefore, regret that as a matter of conscience and faith, we hereby submit to you our resignation from the Board of Trustees of the National Cathedral. We honourably assure you, as we assured the Board of Trustees in January 2023 with the submission of our Resolution, that our action in no way impugns the vision or intent of The National Cathedra but rather ensures that it is advanced and built on a foundation of integrity, efficiency and quality while garnering and maintaining public trust and support. We truly owe this to God and to country.”

Background
The two clerics called for an audit of funds and expenditures of the controversial project in January 2023.

This was after Bishop Dag Heward-Mills resigned from the Board citing concerns about the costs, the design, the location, the fundraising, the mobilisation of the churches, and the role of the trustees.

A part of his letter said, “I have been a reachable and available trustee and attended every single meeting of trustees since the pandemic began, in person and by Zoom, and the records will show that. If I say that I, as a trustee, do not know many of the financial and technical issues concerning the Cathedral, it means the discussions about the National Cathedral were held by some people outside the trustees’ meeting or perhaps in a forum that I was not present or invited to”.

“The National Cathedral is said to be a Government of Ghana project, with the government taking financial decisions. Yet on another hand, at meetings, it is implied that the trustees have taken or participated in taking some decisions,” he decried adding that his suggested approaches toward the construction of the Cathedral had been ignored by the Trustees.

This also added to the series of explosive revelations of alleged corruption by the Member of Parliament for North Tongu Constituency, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa about the project.