Cecilia Dapaah: Ex-Minister Named As Owner Of Stolen $800K On Amended Charged Contrary To Paul's Claim

• Paul Adom-Otchere's claim that the $800,000 stolen from Cecilia Dapaah's residence did not belong to her has been shot down
• According to the amended charge sheet, the $800,000 was the "property" of the embattled former minister of sanitation
• Paul Adom-Otchere had claimed that close sources to the former minister disclosed to him that the money, part of $1 million, and huge cash stolen from the ex minister's residence, belonged to her late brother

Former Sanitation Minister, Cecilia Dapaah has been named as the owner of the $800,000 stolen together with some $200,000 at her Abelenkpe residence by her domestic workers.

The $800,000 was part of the $1 million, together with €300,000, thousands of Ghana cedis, expensive jewellery and personal belongings estimated to cost at least GH¢95,000.

The wording of the amended charge sheet presented to the court in Accra on Tuesday, August 8, 2023, suggests the money was the "property" of the embattled former minister.

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The relevant portion of the new charge sheet reads as follows:

"Patience Botwe (Hairdresser), Sarah Adjei (unemployed), sometime in the year 2022 at Abelemkpe in the Greater Accra Region and within the jurisdiction of this court, did dishonestly appropriate cash the sum of Eight Hundred Thousand United States Dollars ($800,000 USD) the property of Cecilia Abena Dapaah."

Paul Adom-Otchere's claim shot down

The content of the amended charge sheet is contrary to a claim by broadcaster Paul Adom-Otchere, who said on his TV show, Good Evening Ghana, that he has been reliably informed that the money belonged to the ex-minister's late brother, Nana Akwasi Essan II.

The broadcaster alleged on one of the episodes of his evening show that the embattled former minister's late brother left behind the $800,000 to their late mother before he died.

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Then shortly before their mother also passed away, she handed the money to the former minister for safe-keeping.

According to him, the former minister's part of the stolen $1 million was only $200,000.

He made the allegation to diffuse growing public furore about news that the minister had been hoarding $1 million in cash among other huge amounts of cash in other currencies at her house at a time of severe economic hardship in the country.

Although Paul appeared to have made the claim with so much conviction, many did not believe him because, in the last couple of years, respected media personalities have called him out for allegedly doing a hatchet job for people in the corridors of power.

Wife of ex-minister's late brother storms court over husband’s alleged $800K

Meanwhile, YEN.com.gh has reported that the wife of the late brother of Cecilia Dapaah is demanding the $800,000 her husband allegedly gave to the former minister's family before he passed away.

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Irene Kensah, the widow, believes by law the money belongs to her and her children and has asked her lawyer to retrieve it.

Irene disclosed that Paul's claim on TV was helpful.

In court on August 8, 2023, police prosecuting the case told the judge that three new people had been included in the growing list of suspects in the matter, but one person has been discharged.

Police also found four new houses believed to have been acquired with the stolen cash.

Source: YEN.com.gh