Court gives green light for Cecilia Dapaah’s case to be heard expeditiously

An Accra High Court has fixed October 12, 2023, to hear an application to freeze the accounts of Cecilia Abena Dapaah, a former Minister of Water Resources and Sanitation, again.

The court had originally fixed October 18, 2023, to hear the application.

However, it changed that decision yesterday, following, 2023, following an application for abridgement of time filed by the former Minister.

Justice Edward Twum on Wednesday ruled that the former Minister would suffer greater hardship if the application for abridgment was not heard earlier.

The court said for “the interest of fairness, justice and expeditious trial, the court will grant the applicant’s prayer before the court” and adopted the abridgement of time filed on behalf of the former Minister.

The Court on August 31, 2023, threw out the first application by the OSP to freeze the former Minister’s account.

It, therefore, ordered the OSP on September 5, 2023, to release Mrs Dapaah’s funds.

The OSP, however, filed another application and froze the accounts.

On September 20, 2023, the OSP served her freezing application and October 18, 2023, was fixed for hearing of the application.

Earlier, Victoria Barth, lead counsel for the ex-Minister noted that the delay in determining the application for abridgment of time would cause undue hardship to her client.

Barth admitted being served with the OSP’s opposed application, which she described as a “comprehensive repeat application” for confirmation of seizure and freezing orders in respect of suspected “tainted property”.

She said: “My Lord you have power under Order 80 (4) (1) as well as your inherent jurisdiction to reduce or abridge time in the interest of justice.”

OSP’s lawyers led by Esther Tetteh, opposed to the application for abridgement

Dapaah has since filed an injunction application against the OSP preventing it from further investigating her.