Money received from my dead brother’s account was for payment of his children’s fees – Cecilia Dapaah

• Posted on October 9, 2023October 9, 2023
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

Former Sanitation and Water Resources Minister, Cecilia Dapaah says monies transferred from her dead brother’s account were for payment of his children’s fees.

This is a response to claims by the Office of the Special Prosecutor that the said transfer was suspicious since the brother has been dead for sometime now.

Ms. Dapaah explains that the account was opened with funeral donations collected by Cal Bank at her brother’s funeral.

“…the truth is that funds were transferred from an account in the name “The Late Nana Akwasi Essan” to which I am a signatory. The funds were transferred to me for payment of the school fees of my late brother’s children” lawyers of the former Minister stated in a sighted court document.

The Office of the Special Prosecutor is back at the High Court seeking a confirmation of its freeze and seizure order. It would be recalled that the OSP seized $590,000 dollars and two million eight hundred and sixty-two thousand and seven Ghana cedis during a search of Ms. Dapaah’s residence. Her accounts were also frozen.

An Accra High Court however, issued an order allowing a release of the cash and asking for the accounts to be unfrozen. The OSP complied with this order but shortly announced it had seized the cash and issued a fresh freezing order. The Minister has, through her lawyers filed court documents asking the court to once again reject this request for confirmation of the OSP’s actions.

The lawyers accuse the OSP of acting in bad faith and making false allegations against the Minister. They recount that on September 4, they were called to show up at the offices of the OSP to receive the seized cash. After waiting for hours, the monies were released but upon reaching the car park they were called to return to the office they had just left.

“When I got to the 7th floor, I was told by one of the applicant’s officers that he had the pleasure to inform me that the applicant (OSP) was re-seizing the money. They proceeded to re-count it and then served me notice of the re-seizure,” the Minister recounts in court documents.

The OSP had also accused the former Minister of engaging in an undeclared real estate business. It was further alleged that she had sold a property to a third party under the alias “Nana Yaa Ode”. Ms. Dapaah says she has no real estate business and investigators have failed to provide any evidence to back this claim. She adds that she did not conceal her identity to sell any property but rather sold the said property in a representative capacity for Nana Yaa Ode also known as Nana Ode Nyarko, her mother who is now deceased.

The OSP’s application was expected to be moved at the High Court on Wednesday, 18th October, 2023. However, a lawyer for Ms Dapaah, Victoria Barth, has filed an application for an abridgment of time for the application to be heard by the court earlier.

Victoria Barth argues that since the action by the OSP is a repeat application, the OSP has foreknowledge of the basis of Ms Dapaah’s opposition and will therefore not be prejudiced by an early hearing.

The application for an abridgment of time is expected to be heard on Wednesday, 11th October 2023.