National Cathedral: Ablakwa’s ID theft accusation ‘malicious’ – Secretariat

The National Cathedral Secretariat has said a claim by North Tongu MP Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa that the body used the identity of a dead man to register the national cathedral project as a not-for-profit organisation in the United States is nothing but calculated malice.

Following his investigative trip to the US, Mr Ablakwa revealed: “Painstaking and unimpeachable investigations shockingly reveal that the March 2021 incorporation of the National Cathedral of Ghana and Bible Museum Foundation, Inc., in Washington, D.C. was criminally executed through identity theft.”

He said: “By an intercepted IRS tax-exempt letter dated December 13, 2021 — I can confirm that the Employer ID Number for the National Cathedral of Ghana and Bible Museum Foundation, Inc is: 86-3859197.

“Further irrefutable forensic investigations reveal that the Social Security Number of: 863-85-9197 used to generate the Cathedral’s Employer ID Number belongs to one Jose Salgado. (See evidence attached).”

“Deeper investigations and impregnable gold-standard validation which include a report from police database has established that 31-year-old Jose Salgado who has many aliases including Jose Luis Delapaz, Jose Isabel Salgado, Jose Luis Paz and Jose L De was born in March 1983 and died on September 17, 2014. (See extract attached). It has, therefore, emerged beyond any scintilla of doubt that the Social Security Number of a deceased young male Hispanic who died 9 years ago was fraudulently used to incorporate Ghana’s national cathedral in Washington, D.C.,” the MP claimed.

“Clearly, it seems those responsible for this gross international embarrassment knew Jose Salgado’s death was yet to be formally reported to all the relevant US authorities and decided to take dubious but costly advantage.”

A statement signed by the Secretariat’s Executive Director, Dr Paul Opoku-Mensah, however, said the opposition MP’s accusation betrays his lack of understanding of the US system.

“As a Ghanaian, I find it extremely embarrassing to see this expressed by the Ranking Member of Foreign Affairs in the Country’s Parliament,” Dr Opoku-Mensah said via the statement.

The Secretariat also accused Mr Ablakwa of deliberate distortion of the facts to fit his narrative of events.

“The main body of Episode 2, however, is the malicious accusation that the National Cathedral is guilty of the serious crime of ‘identity theft’ in the registration of the National Cathedral Foundation in the USA.

“But, this distortion is neither the result of an accident nor of ignorance. It reflects the modus operandi of the MP, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa. All his so-called ‘National Cathedral scandals’ are distortions of information on the project!

“As we have consistently argued, and repeated in our press release of on May 3, 2023, ‘the National Cathedral Project has been implemented with integrity, and with no criminality’. As with the recklessly populist and reputationally-damaging accusations of the McCarthy era in the USA, the misinformation and distortions on the National Cathedral project will – ultimately – unravel!” the statement also said.