Last Saturday, the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, sounded very confused over the Cecilia Abena Dapaah scandal, as he sought to get away from his decision to stop the ex-Minister of Water and Sanitation, for allegations of money laundering.
Godfred Yeboah Dame, blamed both the Special Prosecutor’s Office (OSP) and the Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO) for the clearance, but insisted that the OSP, first laid the foundation for the ex-minister to be cleared.
Interestingly, at the inception of this scandal, the minister’s resignation and the commencement of the OSP’s investigation, President Nana Akufo-Addo, had expressed confidence that the minister would be exonerated.
President Nana Akufo-Addo, in July last year, accepted the resignation of Cecilia Dapaah, as minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, following a newspaper report that $1 million, €300,000 and several millions of Ghana cedis, were stolen from her home.
“I am confident, like you, that, at the end of the day, your integrity, while in office, will be fully established. I wish you the very best in all your endeavours,” President Akufo-Addo stated in his acceptance letter in response to Cecilia Dapaah’s resignation letter.
The Attorney-General, refuted claims that EOCO, failed to follow the directive from the OSP to investigate the allegations of money laundering and clarified that EOCO, had conducted a thorough investigation into the allegations against Cecilia Dapaah.
According to him, there are documents available in his [Dame] office, showing EOCO, did not find substantial evidence to proceed with the case and thus sought guidance from the A-G’s office.
He also refuted suggestions that he swayed the OSP’s decision to exonerate the former sanitation minister from corruption charges.
Godfred Dame, urged for careful consideration of the topic, pointing out that the OSP, not his office, had absolved Cecilia Dapaah of corruption charges.
“So this clearly settles the issue. So far as funds located in Madam Cecilia Dapaah’s house were concerned, so far as the sums seized were concerned, there was clearly no direct or immediate evidence of corruption. And that is not me stating this, this is the OSP himself clearing Madam Cecelia Dapaah.
“The record must reflect the point that the OSP, with the mandate to investigate corruption and corruption-related offences, after conducting an elaborate inquiry cleared Madam Cecilia Dapaah of corruption. So why is he now trying to suggest that the AG has cleared anyone of corruption? EOCO never investigated for corruption, the AG has never investigated for corruption, it is the OSP itself,” myjoyonline.com quoted him as having said.
“EOCO carried out an investigation into the money laundering allegations and concluded there was no evidence to move forward. They communicated in their correspondence that after reviewing the case file and their findings, they could not substantiate any money laundering claims against Cecilia Dapaah,” he stated during a panel discussion on the Newsfile programme on JoyNews.
“This decisively resolves the matter. Regarding the funds found in Madam Cecilia Dapaah’s residence and the confiscated amounts, there was no direct or immediate proof of corruption. This exoneration comes from the OSP, who cleared Madam Cecilia Dapaah of any corruption,” the Attorney-General remarked.
He emphasized that the OSP, tasked with probing corruption and related offences, conducted a comprehensive investigation and exonerated Cecilia Dapaah of corruption.
The Attorney-General, elaborated that the OSP’s referral to EOCO was explicitly about money laundering, as detailed in the OSP’s letter.
“The money laundering allegations pertained to certain financial transfers from the United States. The OSP specified that the investigation should focus on the funds allegedly brought into Ghana from the U.S. as the basis for the money laundering probe,” he explained.
He was responding to concerns voiced by some Ghanaians and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) after his advise to EOCO against pursuing money laundering inquiries into Cecilia Dapaah’s dealings.
The Attorney-General’s office disclosed that the dossier handed to EOCO comprised the OSP’s forwarding letter, the action diary, statements from the investigation, and communications from the OSP to entities such as the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) and banks.
The Attorney General Godfred Dame stated that neither his department nor the EOCO cleared the former Sanitation Minister of corruption allegations but the OSP, after a comprehensive investigation, found no evidence of corruption, despite the accusations against her.
The Attorney General revealed that he advised EOCO against conducting money laundering investigations into Cecilia Dapaah’s affairs, considering it unnecessary because the law states that money laundering is a predicate offence.
A predicate offence is an illegal activity that is the foundation or the first crime in the chain of another crime.
The Attorney General’s office revealed that the file given to EOCO included only the OSP’s letter forwarding the file, the action diary, statements from the investigation, and correspondence from the OSP to entities like the CID and banks.
The Attorney General determined that the OSP’s request to EOCO for money laundering investigations into Cecilia Dapaah’s dealings was unfounded. But a private legal practitioner, Martin Kpebu has asked the Attorney General to withdraw its letter to EOCO ordering a cessation of the money laundering investigation.
Describing the advice as “false and not grounded in law,” Kpebu stated that there was no need for a predicate offence for prosecution against the former minister as suggested by the AG.
On Citi TV’s ‘The Big Issue’, he said “The letter is a huge mistake, a faux pas, that was a wrong step because the letter is not grounded in law. The AG is insisting that you need a predicate offence before you can prosecute someone for money laundering, but that is not correct, it’s false, we have changed the law. There’s a new law, for us in Ghana that says no need for predicate offence.”
Kpebu insisted that the AG, needs to step in due to Dapaah’s failure to justify her wealth.
“Cecilia Dapaah cannot explain her source of money, if you take her to court, she’s guilty. The Attorney General’s letter is so bad that it has to be withdrawn. The AG has to be humble, we all don’t know it all, if the AG has gotten it wrong, he should just accept his mistake. He cannot win every case.”
On May 1, the Attorney General’s office, advised EOCO against continuing with the money laundering probe against Cecilia Dapaah.
The Office of the Attorney General (AG) and Ministry of Justice said there is no basis for the EOCO to conduct money laundering investigations into the affairs of the former Sanitation Minister.
The OSP had earlier this year dropped charges against the former minister and referred the matter to EOCO for money laundering investigations. But, after studying the documents submitted to it by EOCO, the office of the AG has since advised against money laundering investigations into the matter by EOCO.
In a letter dated April 25, 2024, signed by Evelyn Keelson, a Chief State Attorney from the AG’s office to EOCO said, “The OSP’s referral to EOCO for investigations to be conducted into money laundering is without basis.”
This advice came after the Special Prosecutor’s office determined that the over one million dollars found at the then sanitation minister’s home was beyond its remit.
The Special Prosecutor further recommended that the focus should rather be on money laundering investigations.
The Center for Democratic Development (CDD) Ghana has also expressed worry over the handling of high-profile cases by the Akufo-Addo administration. In a statement on the latest twist to the matter, CDD-Ghana also mentioned several cases it feels the government has not handled better in its bid to fight corruption.
“CDD-Ghana notes with great disappointment that the abrupt or inconclusive manner in which this matter has been ended fits a pattern in terms of the Nana Akufo Addo Administration’s general attitude and response to scandals and allegations or reported incidents of criminal conduct, corruption, or other financial malfeasance involving persons closely associated with the Government or ruling party.
“Cases and scandals that have been treated in a similar inclusive fashion include various Galamsey scandals and a host of pseudo-PPP/procurement deals, including the recent SML case. The Government has not demonstrated a good faith commitment to working with the responsible agencies to bring any of these cases or scandals to a credible and satisfactory resolution.
“It appears that the Government is more interested in exonerating the targets or suspects in these cases than in working with the state’s investigative and prosecutorial agencies to resolve these matters in the public interest.”
The CDD Ghana questioned the basis for the government setting up investigative bodies if it can just shut down and discontinue high-profile cases.
CDD-Ghana added that the development does not add to good governance.
“The Government makes much of the fact that it pioneered the establishment of the OSP and has provided significant financial resources to enable the OSP and related agencies to function. But what is the point of funding the budgets of these investigative and anticorruption or anti-crime agencies in one breath, while, turning around, to frustrate or obstruct their efforts to investigate politically sensitive and other high-profile cases.
“Given Ghana’s continuing dismal performance in fighting corruption and associated alarming deterioration of the quality of governance, this persistent inconclusive handling and shutting down of high profile scandals only serves to further undermine the already low public trust in our state institutions,” CDD-Ghana stated.
Anti-graft campaigner, Vitus Azeem asked that the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) and the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) must take over the investigation of money laundering accusations against Abena Dapaah.
Commenting on the development, on Morning Starr with Francis Abban on Thursday, Mr. Azeem said the matter should not be allowed to end just like that.
“In the very beginning, I even said that CHRAJ was also the appropriate body to do the investigation in terms of looking at her asset declaration to establish if these monies were acquired legally and from genuine employment or not. They have to establish how the money was acquired.
“So the matter shouldn’t end there if EOCO thinks that it cannot proceed, even if the Attorney General thinks that EOCO cannot proceed, I think that the matter should go to CHRAJ and the matter should also go to GRA. To establish if the lady was doing a genuine business and earned the money and whether was tax paid. So there are still two institutions that can take up this matter and not allow it to just end,” Mr Azeem advised.
theheraldghana.com
