Police have arrested and detained Cecilia Dapaah, a former Ghanaian minister of sanitation and water resources, for keeping $1 million cash at her house in Accra. She had reported to the authorities that the cash haul was stolen from her home.
According to reports by the BBC, Ms Dapaah told the police that $1 million cash, as well as €300,000 and several million Ghana cedis, were allegedly stolen by two of her female domestic workers.
The domestic employees believed to have committed the crime at Ms Dapaah’s home in October of last year were only reported to police seven months later, a development that investigators found had enabled the accused to embark on a spending spree.
Ms Dapaah tendered her resignation to President Nana Akufo-Addo, who accepted it on Saturday, following public outcry about the $1 million cash kept at home.
According to charges brought against the accused and dated Thursday, the court revealed that $1 million (£780,000), as well as $333,000 and GH₵350,000, plus other personal items, including handbags valued at $35,000 and $ 95,000 worth of jewellery.
Ms Dapaah was arrested on Sunday by Ghana’s Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP), the agency that handles corruption charges against high-level officials.
The OSP, in a statement, said Ms Dapaah was placed under house arrest for “suspected corruption and corruption-related offences.”
Mr Akufo-Addo characterised the news as a shock, criticising anti-corruption activists for appearing to prejudge the conclusion of the investigations.
“I am confident… that at the end of the day, your integrity, whilst in office, will be established,” he wrote to Ms Dapaah.
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