Pro-government journalist Paul Adom-Otchere of Metro TV has stated that no new monies have been found at the residence of embattled former sanitation minister, Cecilia Abena Dapaah, contrary to a report by Accra-based TV3 news network.
Speaking on his Good Evening Ghana show (July 25), Adom-Otchere said checks by his team with the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) shows that nothing of the sort was found during their search on July 24.
"We understand that it is untrue and the OSP must come out and clarify, we tried to search about this and what we have is that it is not true.
"We don’t know why TV3 has been carrying this story since midday. It has no source, neither the Special Prosecutor or his deputy. If TV3 has further and better particulars, they should publish it tomorrow or even tonight.
"Because our sources indicate that the Special Prosecutor has said it is not true," he added.
News of the minister losing cash sums amounting to US$1m, €300,000 and GHc350,000; sent shock waves across the Ghanaian society starting Friday morning, July 21,2023; when the Chronicle Newspaper broke the story.
This is where the woes of Cecilia Abena Dapaah, then Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, started.
She had, along with the husband, lodged a formal complaint based on which police prepared a charge sheet for two former employees (house helps) accusing them of stealing and dissipating some of the stolen sums.
The event happened in 2022 yet the Accra Circuit Court only last week sat on the case.
TV3 reporter Eric Mawuena Egbeta, cited sources within the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) who told the station that new stash took them five hours to count.
Even though it is reported that her official residence at Cantonments and private residence at Abelemkpe were searched, it is not known which of the two residences had the latest sums.
"From the search at her residence yesterday (Monday, July 24), a lot more cash has been discovered and it took officials of the Special Prosecutor close to five hours alone in counting this amount of cash which was discovered in her home," the journalist said in a stand-up piece in front of the offices of the OSP in Accra.
Meanwhile, some relatives of the former minister have also been questioned about the stolen monies from her Abelemkpe residence which led to her resignation from office and the current probe by the OSP.
She was granted bail on July 24 hours after the OSP announced that she had been arrested and had escorted its officials to conduct searches at her residence.
Watch Adom-Otchere's submission below:
SARA
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