Cecilia Dapaah, a former minister of sanitation, has denied allegations made by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) that she engaged in financial transactions using her late brother’s accounts and operated a real estate business using aliases.
In order to confirm the re-seized GHS2.83 million and the re-frozen bank accounts of Cecilia Dapaah, the OSP had submitted an application.
Allegations of hidden real estate dealings and the use of aliases in connection with those dealings were denied by Ms. Cecilia Dapaah.
She emphasized that “Nana Yaa Ode” was actually her mother and not just a alias, and she refuted any claims that she was running a covert real estate business.
Regarding transactions from her late brother’s bank account, Ms. Dapaah clarified that the money came from Cal Bank and had to do with memorial contributions. The funds were intended to cover the children’s school expenses of her late brother.
“This account was opened with funeral donations collected by Cal Bank at my late brother’s funeral.
“The correct account name is conspicuously stated in Applicant’s Exhibit OSP18 and the Applicant could easily have ascertained the mandate on the account from Cal Bank. The funds are transferred to me for payment of the school fees of my late brother’s children,” she explained.
She clarified that she did not claim to have registered a business under the name Demacare Cosmetics in relation to the re-seized money, which was said to be the proceeds from a cosmetics company by that name. She drew attention to the inconsistency in the currency notes and claimed that the new cedi denominations in question were not in use in 2003, the ostensible year of the alleged sale.
Ms. Dapaah refuted the claim that $590,000 of the $1 million that was allegedly stolen from her home and for which eight people are being prosecuted was included in the money that was seized.
In an affidavit in opposition to the request for the confirmation of the re-seized GHS2.83 million and the re-frozen bank accounts, she denied the allegations made by the Office of the Special Prosecutor.
