...A chilling account of how our minister abused his office

One day in late 2001 when the Yankees were reeling under freezing temperatures, the Minister for Information and Presidential Affairs, Jake Obetsebi Lamptey, accompanied by his wife, left the shores of Ghana on a misty free flight to Utah-USA.

The couple was on their way to the State of Utah - on the invitation of the international headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, currently one of the richest churches on earth-sometimes ranked above some donor agencies in terms of humanitarian assistance.

Jake, who describes himself as a “friend of the church” is also known to others as the spokesman of the Church of Latter-day Saints in government. The trip was secret and unannounced.

Before stepping out of Ghana, the minister and his wife made several phones calls to America but the one, which Chronicle eavesdropped, was the one made to the campus of Pennsylvania University where Jake’s daughter was studying. The minister and his wife also extended an invitation to join them in Utah.

Transcontinental investigations conducted by Chronicle revealed that the motive for the couple’s decision to invite their daughter to Utah was to seek admission for her at Brigham Young University, one of the best and biggest private universities in the world owned by the Church of Latter-day Saints.

The minister confirmed earlier Chronicle findings in an interview saying, “while I was there, I was taken on a visit to the university. It had been my daughter’s intention to transfer to a bigger university… She liked the university and I suggested to her that she should apply; so she applied - she sent her grades and they accepted her.”

Analysts say by this act, Jake Obetsebi Lamptey stands accused for abuse of his office for personal gains and universal code of conduct.

“This is a clear case of abuse of office for personal gains and nobody needs to look far,” one of the analysts said.

When the minister was queried by Chronicle’s hard-nosed investigators, on the purpose of the trip, he responded confidently that his trip to Utah was an “official trip” and that it became necessary for him to embark on such a trip because the President of the Republic of Ghana, John Agyekum Kufour, was scheduled to visit Utah.

“I was asked to travel to Utah to ascertain whether if, in my opinion, the visit of the President was worthwhile or not, and if it was worthwhile what he would address. After the trip I submitted a report to the President,” he told Chronicle.

When asked why he did not go on the so-called “official” trip with his Special Assistant, Ferdinand Ayim, the minister answered – almost losing his cool “what are you talking about, they invited me and my wife, after all the President and his wife too were invited.”

The minister was again asked who paid for the so-called “official ”trip he said, “the Mormons paid for the trip but it was official.”

Meanwhile, two other different accounts exist as to the real reason why the church flew the gullible minister and his wife to Utah.

The second account on the true reason why the minister was flown to Utah came from Mr. Russel S. Tanner, the church’s area director for Africa. According to him, the minister bore the entire cost of the trip-a claim which sounded strange and surprised Chronicle.

Mr. Tanner also told Chronicle that the minister and his wife were invited by the church to participate in their annual international conference on “International Law and to learn about the church”- this also entirely contradicts the Minister’s own account.

The last account, which came from Chronicle’s deep throat sources, hinted that the real motive of the minister’s sponsored trip was a payback for various assistance he had given and continues to give the Mormons in his capacity as former Chief of Staff and Minister for Information and Presidential Affairs.

One of the high points of such facilitations for the church was acquisition of a development permit for the construction of the church’s West Africa headquarters in Accra and for parroting Mormons’ messages into the ears of the President.

According to our deep throat sources, the Minister’s rationalization of his trip is flawed and lacks the “basic ingredients of common sense.” To them it is strange that a Minister of State can be sent on an official trip paid by an organization, which has been desperately looking for a pressure point in Ghana to facilitate the acquisition of a building permit, which the previous administration virtually refused to give for various reasons.

The sources also maintained that what is more interesting is the fact that even though the Minister embarked on his so-called fact-finding trip during the latter part of year 2001, the President did not visit Utah until September 2002 - almost one clear year after the minister’s trip.

Other deep throat Chronicle sources - a retired intelligence officer who was contacted on the security implications of the Minister’s trip stated that if indeed it was true that he was “officially” sent to go and find out about the worthiness of the President’ s visit to Utah (which includes his security), then whoever took such a decision is handicapped in intelligence gathering -“you can quote me” he added. “

Just look at this scenario, the government wants a Minister of State to travel abroad and gather some intelligence information regarding the worthiness of the President’s visit to Utah.

“Now, a church invites a minister for that official trip and pays for the trip - which gives the Church an idea of when the Minister will be arriving. The church hosts the minister and sends him on a tour. “My brother I don’t believe this happened; if it did, then something is really wrong.” The life of our President is in danger with that kind of intelligence men around him” our intelligence source explained.

Surprisingly, soon after Jake embarked on that “official trip” the church announced in official documents that they chalked a major breakthrough in the acquisition of the building permit.

“The groundbreaking for the Ghana temple for the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints was held on November 16, 2001. Construction is currently underway.” Stated sections of the documents.

THE PERMIT CONTROVERSY

The paper trail began in 1999 and ended in November 2001.

The story began when the Church of Latter-day Saints applied for a building permit in 1999 - The secretary to Accra Metropolitan Planning Committee (AMPC) wrote a letter dated June 28, to the church saying that their application for development permit in respect of their proposed project along the Independence Avenue, South Ridge - Accra had been approved in principle.

The letter stated that the approval-in-principle was based on two conditions. - “The design of the structures within the area should reflect a predominant height of four-storey which is the approved height zoning of the area.” and “The structures abutting the Independence Avenue should be adequately recessed.”

On July 7, 1999, eight days after the first approval, the AMPC secretary again wrote to the Church and revoked the previous approval and ordered the Church to “eliminate the Temple from the design as it does not conform to the uses earmarked for the area.”

“I have been directed by the Accra Metropolitan Planning Committee to inform you that quite apart from the issue raised in my earlier letter, you are to eliminate the Temple from design as it does not conform to the uses earmarked for the area. The letter supercedes earlier ones sent to you, the letter said.

The ding-dong battle between the AMPC and the Church continued until year 2000 when the NDC government lost power to the NPP in the 2000 elections. For the Mormons, the victory of the previous administration sounded more like a good omen for them, especially in their desperate quest to get a building permit.

Within a few months into the NPP government - in 2001, the Mormons obtained the permit and began the construction of the multi-billion Temple with indecent haste.

Investigations reveal that the process of acquiring the permit was fast tracked under the new government and the minister who is widely alleged to have made it happen is Jake Obetsebi Lamptey.

But the minister, in an interview with Chronicle, denied doing anything untoward, playing any role, or bending the rules for the approval of the permit for the Mormons.

When asked whether he played any role in the approval of the development permit for the construction of the Temple he said, “I don’t know anything about that. Where I did facilitate was that they received a stop order and were challenged by representatives of the Osu stool. There was an injunction issued for them to stop work and we spoke to the Attorney-General and the matter was resolved through the court.”

Asked about his relationship with the church, the minister said that he sees himself rather as a friend of the Church. He said he believes in the Church’s philosophy of family and their philosophy of being responsible for one’s own action.

Investigations by Chronicle revealed that the committee in their earlier decisions expressed reservations about approving the permit because the area where the Temple is being built was originally zoned by the AMPC as a residential area but it was later rezoned to be used as a mixed commercial area and so the uses of the Temple did not conform to the pre-determined zoning of the area.

Speaking in an interview with Chronicle, officials of AMPC explained that, “mixed commercial use” meant that the area had been earmarked for use as offices and other commercial activities in which case the use of the Temple did not conform.

The officials continued that aside these, the exact position of the building was on a ceremonial road and they needed a report on traffic impact assessment, Ghana Fire Service report, Environmental Protection Agency report, a Geo-Technical report and a land title certificate. The issue of traffic impact assessment is viewed against the background that the church has about 100,000 followers in West Africa - with 20,000 followers living in Ghana.

The officials however noted that the Church appealed against the decision of the committee and asked them to review their decision, saying that the Temple was not going to be a mass place of worship but rather a “place of religious instruction” and a chain of hostel facilities and offices.

The officials noted that the Church made the committee to understand that the entire empire of buildings overlooking the Independence Avenue was going to be used for something like a training school, administrative block, library, guest apartments, cafeteria and a temple.

“Occasionally our men go there to inspect the development and if it turns out that they are going to use it for mass worship we will ask them to close it down.”

The officers also added that following the refusal of their request of an adjustment in their building plan that the Church produced all the reports from GFS, Urban Roads, and EPA, they could not refuse the Mormons the permit. He also noted that in spite of the fact that the area has been zoned as a mixed commercial area, there are other churches around the area notably the Salvation Army and some other churches around the Ridge area.

“Because there are some churches around the area, we could also not refuse them, based on this requirement,” one of the officers said.

Meanwhile most of the churches they were referring to were very far away. Chronicle’s patrols in the area revealed that none of the churches mentioned above were located exactly on a ceremonial road as that of the Mormons.

Meanwhile former government officials were quoted by our deep throat sources as telling the AMPC and the Church leadership that the permit for the construction of the Temple on such a major ceremonial road, “would never be granted.”

POLITICAL PRESSURE ON AMPC

The intelligence information, which Chronicle was looking for, to connect a political pressure on AMPC for the approval of a building permit for the Church, finally came in a terse statement in one of the three separate interviews.

In their attempt to defend themselves and purge the AMPC from any suspicion of wrong doing, one of the officers said, “My brother, we couldn’t have done anything wrong because somehow, the Castle was interested and a report on the approval at every stage the was sent to the Castle.”

They however refused to mention a name of the official who tele-guarded the approval process. Chronicle could also not link any official. The closest it could go was that Jake, who has a close connection with the Church was the Chief of Staff, in the Office of the President at around that time.