Former sanitation minister Cecilia Dapaah’s five bank accounts no longer have their funds frozen by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP).
A press release issued on Monday, October 16 revealed this development. The order to freeze Ms. Dapaah’s other bank accounts and financial assets, however, is still in effect.
The Office of Special Prosecutions (OSP) launched an investigation into alleged offenses involving large sums of cash and valuables that were allegedly connected to Ms. Cecilia Abena Dapaah, the former Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources, in July 2023. The Special Prosecutor issued a freezing order on Ms. Dapaah’s bank accounts and financial assets to assist the investigation.
The embattled former Minister had already been accused by the OSP of hiding her assets and income prior to this. The OSP alleged that Cecilia Dapaah had failed to respond to a notice requiring her to declare her property within the allotted 30-day period, as required by the OSP Act, in an official statement of offense filed at the High Court on Friday, October 6. This noncompliance was deemed by the OSP to be a violation of the OSP Act, and appropriate sanctions were requested.
The statement claims that Ms. Dapaah, 68, disregarded a Special Prosecutor notice that she must declare her property and income within a certain amount of time after receiving it on July 24, 2023.
The Office of the Special Prosecutor (Operations) Regulations, 2018, specifically regulation 20(1) as outlined in Forms 1A and 1B of the First Schedule of the OSP Act, were cited as being violated by this noncompliance.
An important development in this ongoing case is the OSP’s decision to revoke the freezing order on five of Ms. Dapaah’s bank accounts. Although the statement did not provide specific explanations for this change, it does indicate some complexity in the investigation, which may result in a distinction between the frozen assets.
Additionally, the OSP had just asked the Chief Justice to remove Justice Edward Twum from all cases involving Cecilia Dapaah when they made their statement.
The OSP requested that the judge be removed from all of their cases before him because they were concerned that he might have prejudiced views against the institution. This emphasizes even more how contentious and complex the inquiries into Ms. Dapaah have been.
