Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, the Minority Leader, has vehemently refuted claims by Richard Ahiagbah, the Director of Communications for the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), suggesting that he was part of the Bank of Ghana’s board during the initiation of processes for the construction of its new head office building.
In a strong and categorical response, Dr Forson dismissed these assertions as entirely untrue and urged all well-intentioned Ghanaians to disregard them.
In an official statement released on Saturday, August 12, the former Deputy Finance Minister clarified that during the Mahama administration, the Bank of Ghana never granted any contract for the construction of a new head office.
Dr Forson further extended a challenge to Mr Ahiagbah, urging him to provide substantiating evidence if he possesses any contradictory information.
“For the records, the Bank of Ghana under the erstwhile Mahama/NDC administration never awarded a contract for the construction of this new Head Office.”
“We, therefore challenge the likes of Ahiagbah and his NPP apologists to show evidence to the contrary if they have any.”
“Second, the Bank of Ghana never purchased land anywhere in Accra for the construction of a new Head Office building,” he said.
Dr Ato Forson maintained his position that the ongoing construction project is unwarranted and should be terminated by the central bank. He emphasized that during his tenure, the Bank of Ghana did not acquire land within Accra to erect a new head office building.
It will be recalled that during Saturday’s Newsfile on Accra-based Joy FM, Richard Ahiagbah alleged that Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, was an integral part of the Bank of Ghana-led board that initiated the process for the construction of a new headquarters building.
Ahiagbah asserted that Dr Ato Forson was actively involved in negotiations with an individual for the acquisition of land for the new headquarters.
“He [Ato Forson] was a member of the Bank of Ghana board member at the point where they were in government and this conversation about building a new headquarters didn’t start today but in the 1990s when the Bank of Ghana decided to build a whole new place due to the current location being caught up with surrounding developments,” Ahiagbah claimed.
“I’m mentioning Ato Forson because he was part of the Board that was looking for a parcel of land to buy for this particular purpose of building a new BoG headquarters while he was serving as part of the Banks’ Board to the extent that there was an individual who was offering a piece of land around Achimota forest for $2.5 million per acre,” he added.
