Five individuals have petitioned the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) to investigate former Sanitation Minister Cecilia Dapaah for allegedly acquiring assets disproportionate to her income.
The petitioners, Bernard Anbataayela Mornah (Convenor for the Arise Ghana Movement), Mensah Thompson (Executive Director of the Alliance For Social Equity and Public Accountability – ASEPA), Al-Hassan Kwadwo Baidoo (Software developer and engineer/ Enterprise Architect and Data Analyst), Ransford Antwi, and Joyce Atitso, have called for a thorough investigation into Cecelia Dapaah’s finances.
The controversy surrounding Dapaah began with a theft she reported that took place at her home, leading to her resignation in July 2023. The stolen items included substantial amounts of money—$1 million, €300,000, and GH¢350,000 all in cash —as well as luxury handbags valued at $35,000 and $95,000 worth of jewelry at her residence.
The disclosure of these amounts sparked public outrage amidst Ghana’s economic challenges and the devaluation of the cedi.
Following her resignation, Cecelia Dapaah was arrested by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP), which discovered over GH¢48 million in her bank accounts.
The investigation, which drew in the FBI, lasted nearly seven months before the OSP dropped the charges due to insufficient evidence and transferred the case to the Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO). EOCO, in turn, returned the docket to the OSP, citing a lack of evidence.
The petitioners in their request on May 20 urged CHRAJ to scrutinize Ms. Dapaah’s assets, which include $1,390,000; €300,000, GH₵3,212,007; and bank accounts in both cedis and dollars.
“…More importantly, we are fortified in the need for this investigation because during interrogation by the OSP as to the source of her income, Madam Cecilia Dapaah could not give any proper explanation,” they added.
You would recall that the Office of the Special Prosecutor in Ghana commenced an investigation in July 2023 in respect of suspected corruption-related offenses regarding large amounts of money (mainly in foreign currency denominations) and other valuable items involving Ms. Cecelia Dapaah, a former Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources and her spouse, Mr. Daniel Osei-Kufuor.
The investigation was triggered by a complaint filed by Ms. Dapaah and Mr. Osei-Kufuor to the police against certain individuals on an allegation of the theft of large sums of money from the residence of the complainants. Ms. Dapaah was at the time a Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources. The complainant (Ms. Dapaah) precipitated criminal proceedings in the Circuit Court, Accra against four (4) persons on various counts of theft in Court Case No. D4/155/2023 The Republic V. Patience Botwe & Three Ors (Others). The charges recounted that between July and October 2022, the accused persons allegedly stole valuable items from the residence of Ms. Dapaah and Mr. Osei-Kufuor at Abelemkpe, Accra – including cash amounts of One Million United States Dollars (US$ 1,000,000) and Three Hundred Thousand Euros (€ 300,000).
The initial complaint to the Ghana Police recounted that Eight Hundred Thousand United States dollars (US$ 800,000) of the amount was reportedly stolen from the residence and was said to belong to Ms. Dapaah’s deceased brother and Three Hundred Thousand Ghana cedis (GHC 300,000) was contribution towards Ms. Dapaah’s mother’s funeral as was contained in a box. There was no indication as to the source of the remainder of Two Hundred Thousand United States dollars ($ 200,000) and Three Hundred Thousand Euros (€ 300,000).
Therefore, on the basis of this case and the totality of the criminal intelligence gathered by the Office of the Special Prosecutor as well as the fact that large sums of money were physically stashed at the residences of Ms. Dapaah and Mr. Osei-Kufuor, the Special Prosecutor directed a full investigation into corruption and corruption-related offenses involving the respondent (in accordance with regulation 6 of the Office of the Special Prosecutor (Operations) Regulations, 2018 (L.I. 2374) as the circumstances reasonably indicated to the Office that the source of the cash sums stated as belonging to Ms. Dapaah (a public officer at the time) on the charge sheet in case was suspicious and that the cash sums were suspected tainted property as being proceeds from corruption and corruption-related offenses.
So, on 24 July 2023, the Office of the Special Prosecutor placed Ms. Dapaah under arrest on charges of corruption and corruption-related offences. The Office subsequently conducted searches in three (3) residential properties associated with Ms. Dapaah and Mr. Osei-Kufuor at cantonments, Abelemkpe, and Tesano all in Accra. The searches which were carried out over a period of two (2) weeks, led to the discovery of the cash sums of Five Hundred and Ninety Thousand United States dollars (US$ 590,000) and Two Million Seven Hundred and Thirty Thousand Ghana cedis (GHC 2,730,000).
Ms. Dapaah and Mr. Osei-Kufuor could not readily provide a reasonable explanation as to the sources of the cash sums. Therefore, authorized officers of the Office of the Special Prosecutor OSP were instructed to seize the discovered cash sums on reasonable grounds that they were suspected tainted property in accordance with section 32(1) of the OSP Act, 2017 (Act 959) as it was necessary to exercise the power of seizure to prevent concealment of the cash sums.
The special prosecutor, considering it necessary to facilitate the investigations, issued a freezing order against the bank accounts and investments of Ms. Dapaah domiciled at Prudential Bank Limited and Societe Generale Ghana.
So far, the investigation was aimed at determining the source of the large cash sums associated with Ms. Dapaah and Mr. Osei-Kufuor.
Per the information on their website “The Office has had the benefit of seven (7) months of in-country and four (4) months of collaborative transboundary investigation. Hence, on the totality of the gathered evidence and intelligence, it seems to us that the case is largely in the province of suspected money laundering and structuring”.
Source: www.citinewsroom.com , www.3news.com , www.osp.gov.gh
