The Attorney General made assertions that Cecilia Abena Dapaah had been exonerated of her allegations of money laundering, but the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) has refuted these.
The OSP states that before it can be determined that someone has been exonerated of any charge or allegation, a comprehensive inquiry is necessary.
However, the OSP claims that nothing of the sort has occurred in the Cecilia Dapaah case and that it is inaccurate to state that the woman has been cleared by the Office.
Samuel Appiah Darko, Director of Strategy, Research, and Communications at the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP), stated on Citi FM Tuesday, May 07, 2024, “The AG saying that we had cleared Cecilia Dapaah of any offence is also not accurate because the OSP has never cleared Cecilia Dapaah because when you say you have cleared someone, it means that you have investigated and come to the conclusion that no offence has been committed.”
In addition, he encouraged EOCO to be truthful and publicly state that it has no desire to look into or prosecute Cecilia Dapaah, as opposed to blaming the OSP for its failure to look into the allegations of money laundering made against the former minister of sanitation and water resources.
In a media interview on Monday, May 6, 2024, at the 14th Commonwealth Regional Conference of Heads of Anti-corruption Agencies in Africa, EOCO’s Executive Director, Maame Yaa Tiwa Addo-Danquah, revealed that efforts were underway to return the docket to the OSP following the OSP’s forwarding of Cecilia Dapaah’s docket to them for investigation.
This came about when the OSP noted that the allegations of money laundering in this case fall under the jurisdiction of EOCO. On the other hand, the EOCO announced that it was sending the dockets back to the OSP after receiving guidance from the Attorney General.
Madam Addo-Danquah asserts that her outfit was powerless since anything they “would have done had already been directed at the police CID.”
However, Mr. Appiah Darko contends that rather than giving the idea that the OSP is to blame for the probe’s difficulties, the EOCO has to tell Ghanaians straight out that it is unable to look into and bring charges against the former Minister.
“Our point is that if there is no desire to investigate and prosecute, tell the people of Ghana that there is no appetite but don’t try to put the blame on the OSP,” he said on Citi FM on Tuesday. “The second point I want to make is this whole idea that the docket that the OSP sent to EOCO was baseless. If you will indulge me, I am going to be a bit detailed,” he continued. May 07, 2024.
Former Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources Cecilia Abena Dapaah stated that her housemaids had embezzled large quantities of money that were kept in her Abelenkpe residence.
The amount of money indicated, which ranged in value from millions of dollars to thousands of euros and cedis, alarmed the public and prompted the Office of the Special Prosecutor to look into the source of the funds.
Following an initial inquiry, the woman’s residence was searched, and the OSP claims that during that search, other sums of money were found there.
The Special Prosecutor suspected money laundering because the Minister, who resigned in the wake of the incident, had given conflicting answers about the source of the money. The fact that EOCO is the organization required by the constitution to conduct investigations into money laundering is what prompted the transfer of the probes to them.
However, once the EOCO asked the government’s attorney for advice on how to proceed with the procedures, the Attorney General instructed the agency not to look into the case.
