All legal actions taken against Cecilia Abena Dapaah, the former minister of sanitation and water resources, have been withdrawn by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP).
The OSP withdrew cases in which it accused the former minister of failing to declare her assets as required by law and filed an application for a confirmation order to keep the former minister’s assets frozen.
The Special Prosecutor, Kissi Agyebeng, appeared at the Accra High Court’s Financial and Economic Crimes Division on Thursday morning, January 25, 2024, to withdraw the cases.
As a result, the OSP was given a 72-hour deadline to surrender all of the assets it had taken from Cecelia Abena Dapaah by the court, which was presided over by Justice Nana Brew.
When the case was called on Thursday morning, Mr. Agyebeng pleaded with the judge to hear him in private.
Justice Brew shot back, saying he would rather hear the case in public because of how urgent it was.
The Special Prosecutor moved toward the bench, and the lawyers trailed behind the judge into his private offices.
Background
The OSP and the former minister’s lawyers have been fighting in court since July 2023, when the anti-graft agency started looking into Cecilia Abena Dapaah for possible corruption and offenses related to corruption after learning that she was allegedly holding more than $1 million in her home.
Then, in an Accra Circuit Court, police prosecutors accused two housekeepers who worked for Mrs. Dapaah and her husband, Daniel Osei Kuffour, of stealing merchandise and cash valued at millions of Ghana cedis from their Abelemkpe residence.
