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Court orders OSP to return Cecilia Dapaah’s seized money within seven days
An Accra High Court has mandated the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) to return Cecilia Dapaah’s seized money to her within a period of seven days.
The former Sanitation Minister found herself entangled in a legal dispute when her assets were seized by the OSP. However, the court has overturned this action, directing the OSP to return the confiscated funds to her.
The OSP is investigating Madam Dapaah for corruption and corruption-related offences following the revelation that she was keeping more than $1 million in her house.
The OSP filed a motion to confirm the seized money the office retrieved from Madam Dapaah’s residence and to also confirm the frozen bank accounts.
Madam Dapaah became the talk of the town in July 2023, when the Chronicle Newspaper reported that her domestic helps had been dragged to court for allegedly stealing $1 million, 300,000 euros, several millions of cedis and personal effects of the former minister and her husband valued at thousands of Ghana Cedis and dollars.
Cecilia Dapaah subsequently resigned from her position after a public uproar. She was arrested by the OSP and was later granted bail.
Officials from the Office of the Special Prosecutor on Monday, July 24, 2023, searched the home of the former Minister of Sanitation.
Source:Myjoyonline.com
The Member of Parliament for Nsawam Adoagyiri, Frank Annoh Dompreh, has expressed concern over delays in the release of the District Assemblies Common Fund, warning that the situation is stalling development across the country.
On his facebook page, he described as a matter of urgent national importance, the Minority Chief Whip pointed to what he sees as a growing crisis of unpaid contractors, abandoned projects, and halted infrastructure works in many districts.
He noted that several communities are grappling with half completed schools, unfinished health facilities, abandoned markets, deteriorating roads, and stalled sanitation projects.
According to him, many contractors who have executed projects for district assemblies have not been paid, forcing some construction firms to demobilise from sites while workers lose their jobs.
He stressed that the District Assemblies Common Fund is not a discretionary allocation but a constitutional requirement under Article 252 of the 1992 Constitution, intended to support development at the local level.
In his view, years of delayed releases and accumulated arrears have weakened district development financing and disrupted projects meant to improve living conditions in communities.
He further argued that some payments made in recent years were largely the settlement of old debts rather than funding for new or ongoing projects, a situation he believes has affected contractor confidence and local economic activity.
He described the issue as more than a budgetary challenge, characterising it as a development emergency and a governance concern.
He therefore urged the appropriate authorities to pay outstanding DACF arrears, settle contractors who have completed their work, and ensure that transfers to districts are automatic and predictable.
He maintained that decentralisation can only succeed when district assemblies receive adequate and timely funding to carry out development projects.
He emphasised that stalled projects directly affect ordinary citizens, since they rely on such infrastructure for education, healthcare, transportation, sanitation, and economic activities.
He called for renewed attention to grassroots development, insisting that national progress should not be concentrated only in major cities but extended to all communities.
By: Jacob Aggrey
Richard Appiah, the footballer who killed two children and stored part of their bodies in a fridge at Abesim in the Bono Region in 2021 has been handed a lifetime sentence.
This was after a five member panel of judges at the Accra High Court returned a verdict of guilty against the convict.
Appiah, 32, also a draughtsman would spend the rest of his life in prison after he was convicted of murder.
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BY MALIK SULLEMANA
