Add me to the team to help analyze Cecilia Dapaah’s file – Kpebu tells A-G, EOCO

Private legal practitioner, Martin Kpebu, has appealed to Attorney-General Godfred Dame and the Director of the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) Tiwaah Addo Danquah to invite him to come and help analyze the file of former Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, Cecilia Abena Dapaah.

In the view of Kpebu, there is enough evidence against Madam Dapaah which the AG’s department and the EOCO can base on to prosecute her.

He believes that there is an attempt by the Attorney-General’s department and the EOCO to free former Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources Cecilia Abena Dapaah.

His comments come after the Office of the Attorney General advised EOCO not to initiate any move to investigate money laundering into the dealings of Cecilia Dapaah.

Upon a request for advice by EOCO on the matter, the Attorney General’s office in a letter dated April 25, 2024 and copied to EOCO, said it found that the OSP did not submit the report on its collaborative investigation to EOCO.

Additionally, the office noted the OSP has not responded to EOCO’s request for its findings.

According to the Attorney General’s office, the docket presented to EOCO only contains the OSP’s letter transmitting the docket, the diary of action, statements taken during the investigation, and letters written by the OSP to other institutions like the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) and banks for inquiries.

Further analysis of the docket by the Attorney General’s office revealed that the OSP did not find any evidence of corruption or corruption-related offenses against Cecilia Dapaah.

The Attorney General’s office emphasised that the key to pursuing money laundering investigations is the capacity to prove that financial gains were obtained from criminal proceeds arising from unlawful activity.

“In the absence of the identification of any criminality associated with the properties retrieved from the suspects, the OSP’s referral to EOCO for investigations to be conducted into money laundering is without basis.”

The Attorney General also advised against EOCO investigating the source of Cecilia Dapaah’s funds on the basis that the CID had been tasked to take charge of that aspect of the case.

“Even though as part of your mandate you could commence investigations into the source(s) of the money found in the home of the suspects, we do not find this necessary since this Office before the reference by the OSP, had instructed the Police Service who are already seised with other aspects of the case to investigate the sources of the huge sums of money found in the homes of the suspects, a fact the OSP is aware of.

We find from the OSP’s docket, marked as B1″, a copy of the Attorney-General’s letter to the Director-General of the CID dated 31st July 2023.”

“In light of the above, the OSP docket on the subject matter is returned herewith.”

The Special Prosecutor’s Office had made the request to EOCO after determining that the case involving over 1 million dollars found in the former minister’s house, among other issues, did not fall under its mandate although it suspected possible money laundering.

Speaking on this matter on the Ghana Tonight show on TV3 on Monday May 6, Kpebu said “It begins to feed into the grand conspiracy or evidence that this is a ploy to free Madam Cecilia Dapaah.

I have listed four previous cases in which EOCO Boss didn’t do what is professionally required in order to let people who are close to this government go scot-free – the Abu Jinapor and Assenso Boakye’s case, the Serwaah Broni case, the Takoradi Girls’ case, then Amoako Attah Vrs Stephen Adei’s case.

“So what is new?

On Saturday Attorney-General Godfred Dame came out to say that the EOCO boss Tiwaah Addo Danquah has finished her investigations and she found nothing.

Further, the source of that money had already been stated in the charge sheet (Madam Dapaah and her House girls who are before the court facing criminal trial), the sources of the money had always been in the public domain, that the money was from funeral donations and also for the brother, so the A-G says that is the source of the money.

So if the A-G says so, then why does the letter that the A-G wrote to EOCO Boss say that she can commence investigations but it is not necessary?

“That is a contradiction so it has been unraveled that there is a grand scheme to just free Madam Dapaah.

Like I said there is a lot of evidence in that file and I am challenging the A-G and EOCO Boss that they should bring a few of us to come and analyze the file.”