There is a frenzy on social media platform, Twitter, after news broke that Sanitation Minister, Cecilia Dapaah, managed to have over a million dollars in her home, which was subsequently “cleaned up” by her house helps.
It has emerged that two house helps;18-year-old Patience Botwe and 30-year-old Sarah Agyei are currently facing charges before an Accra Circuit Court for their alleged involvement in a series of thefts that occurred at the minister’s home in Abelemkpe, Accra, between July and October 2022.
Patience and Sarah are charged with one count of conspiracy to commit a crime and five counts of stealing, which include amounts of US$1 million, €300,000, and millions of Ghana Cedis per a report from The Chronicle.
The accused are said to have also stolen personal belongings of Madam Cecilia Abena Dapaah, including clothes valued at GH¢95,000, handbags, perfumes, and jewelry worth US$95,000.
Patience has been accused of going solo in stealing six pieces of Kente cloth worth GH¢90,000 and six sets of men’s suits valued at US$3,000, belonging to Daniel Osei Kuffour.
The amounts stolen have left social media users shell-shocked with many now interrogating whether the Sanitation Minister is the only government official who has stashed such amount of money in her home.
The first public officer in the minds of tweeps is Ghana’s very own Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, who not long risked losing his position over the current state of the economy.
Why Ofori-Atta
The Finance Minister has been accused by the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) of unethically and unlawfully benefiting from his position to siphon Ghana’s money.
The opposition Members of Parliament on Tuesday, October 25, 2022 filed the motion to trigger a process to revoke the minister’s appointment citing severe economic challenges.
The MPs cited the following reasons as justification to revoke Ken Ofori-Atta’s appointment:
- Despicable conflict of Interest ensuring that he directly benefits from Ghana’s economic woes as his companies receive commissions and other unethical contractual advantage. particularly from Ghana’s debt overhang.
- Unconstitutional withdrawals from the Consolidated Fund in blatant contravention of Article 178 of the 1992 Constitution supposedly for the construction of the President’s Cathedral;
- Illegal payment of oil revenues into offshore accounts in flagrant violation of Article 176 of the 1992 Constitution;
- Deliberate and dishonest misreporting of economic data to Parliament
- Fiscal recklessness leading to the crash of the Ghana Cedi which is currently the worst performing currency in the world;
- Alarming incompetence and frightening ineptitude resulting in the collapse of the Ghanaian economy and on excruciating cost of living crisis;
- Gross mismanagement of the economy which has occasioned untold and unprecedented hardship.
Ofori-Atta stays
The vote of censure motion filed by the Minority against the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta failed.
This is because only 136 legislators on the Minority side voted to demand the removal of Mr Ofori-Atta thus falling short of the two-thirds constitutional requirement for the motion to pass through.
The proponents of the motion needed the votes of 183 legislators to have the motion passed against Mr. Ofori-Atta.
Prior to the vote, the New Patriotic Party MPs staged a walkout and decided not to support the motion of their colleagues from the opposition side of the House.
theindependentghana.com
