National Cathedral Secretariat must apologize to Mensa Otabil – Ablakwa

Following comments by the National Cathedral Secretariat that Pastor Mensa Otabil was never a member of the Board of Trustees as earlier claimed by North Tongu MP, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, the latter says the Secretariat must apologize to the religious leader for using his name and image on its promotional materials for all these years.

Ablakwa in an interview on Eyewitness News, said the Secretariat of the National Cathedral cannot claim that having Mensa Otabil’s image and name on its website as a member of the Board of Trustees was an administrative error.

According to him, the National Cathedral secretariat deliberately used Mensa Otabil’s name to show up the credibility and image of the project, and must therefore apologize to him, since the secretariat now says the religious leader was never a part of the board.

“You know that he is not on a member neither has he recused himself, yet you keep him on your website actively as a member of the Board of Trustees but all the engagements you had all over the world, he is always mentioned and highlighted… They have not been fair to Pastor Mensa Otabil. They owe him an apology,” he said.

The National Cathedral Secretariat in a statement on Friday said contrary to claims that the founder of the International Central Gospel Church (ICGC), Mensa Otabil resigned from the Board of Trustees of the National Cathedral, he was never a part of the board.

The Secretariat explained that although Otabil was appointed as part of the 13-member Board of Trustees, he indicated to the board that he will not be able to give the needed attention to the project and thus would not want to be registered as a director of the company.

But Ablakwa, in reacting to the development, said rather than an attempt to brush aside the severity of its action, the secretariat “must show high standards.”

“I was expecting a sincere apology that they’ve been exposed and there was an attempt to clearly use the name of the Pastor and others to shore up the credibility and the image of this project, and it has clearly been exposed, so they are sorry. To say that he [Mensa Otabil] was never really a member of the board of trustees, and it was an administrative lapse, doesn’t cut it,” Ablakwa said.