Ghana, through the public prosecutor, has lost a bid to freeze the assets belonging to former Sanitation and Water Resources Minister Cecilia Abena Dapaah.
The Accra High Court ruled on Friday that the public prosecutor’s application to freeze Dapaah’s assets was unjustifiable and also filed past deadline.
The minister resigned in July over reports that her domestic workers found and stole stashes of local and foreign money from her home.
Consequently, allegations of possible corruption and money laundering were levelled against Dapaah.
Assets’ ownership ‘unclear’
Judge Edward Twum said in his ruling that the public prosecutor froze Dapaah’s properties, including a house, yet the prosecution “had reservations about the true ownership of the said-house” and “the money too.”
“If the applicant was insure about the ownership of the money, how could they go ahead to freeze those tainted properties?” Judge Twum posed.
The court ordered the prosecutor’s office to return Dapaah’s “illegally confiscated” assets within seven days.
Domestic workers allegedly stole at least $1.3 million from Dapaahs’s house in the capital Accra between July and October 2022.
Arrested
On July 24, the former minister was arrested to answer to corruption accusations.
She denied any wrongdoing, saying the cash allegedly stolen from her home was acquired through employment, pension, investments and inheritance from two deceased relatives.
Dapaah is still under investigation, according to Ghanaian authorities.
