In the United States of America, Cecilia Abena Dapaah, a former minister of sanitation, and her associates are the subject of concurrent investigations by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
On Wednesday, the OSP indicated in a post on “X,” formerly Twitter, that “These investigations primarily focus on examining their assets and financial transactions within the United States of America.”
The goal of the coordinated effort, according to the OSP, is to determine whether the wealth of Ms. Cecilia Dapaah and her associates is legal, “both in the context of their funds transitioning from Ghana to the United States and vice versa.”
The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)@USEmbassyGhana have initiated concurrent inquiries into the activities of Cecilia Abena Dapaah, the former Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources, and her associates. These…
— Office of the Special Prosecutor-Ghana (@ospghana) October 11, 2023
Ms. Dapaah first gained attention in July when it was revealed that two of her housekeepers were in court in Accra for allegedly stealing millions of Ghana Cedis worth of goods and money.
On July 22, 2023, she resigned from her position as a result of numerous requests from the general public.
In the meantime, the former sanitation minister filed a request for an interlocutory injunction against the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) in an effort to prevent the Office from looking into and bringing charges against her and her husband, Daniel Osei Kufuor, for alleged corruption and crimes related to corruption.
According to court records that were made available to Citinewsroom.com, the former Minister is also pleading with the judge to order the OSP to unfreeze her bank accounts.
She requests that the court rule that the reseizure of the money discovered in her Abelemkpe home and the refreezing of her bank accounts were unfair and arbitrary.
“A Declaration that the Respondent’s re-seizure of the money (initially seized from the Applicant’s home on 24/07/23) and re-freezing of Applicant’s bank accounts respectively on 5th September 2023 is unfair, unreasonable, capricious, arbitrary, and ultra vires the Respondent’s statutory powers under Act 959 relative to the constitutional provisions of Articles 23 and 296 of the Constitution, 1992.”
The attorneys for Madam Dapaah are also asking the court to “an Order prohibiting the Respondent from continuing the investigation of the Applicant and her husband for corruption or corruption-related offences.”
Madam Dapaah used aliases to conceal transactions from an unregistered real estate business and other transactions, according to court documents submitted by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) in September, which allowed for the seizure and refreezing of her bank account.
However, the former Minister characterized the assertions as false.
