We saved stolen monies over 20 year period – Cecilia Dapaah’s husband tells Court

The husband of former Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources, Daniel Osei-Kufuor has told the High Court in Accra that they started depositing monies stolen from their storeroom over the past 20 years.

According to him, those monies belonged to him, his wife (Cecilia Abena Dapaah), his wife’s family, and his niece who was also his client.

Mr Kufuor, who is testifying as the first prosecution witness, said Patience Botwe and Sarah Agyei, their former housemaids and five others conspired to steal their money.

Under further cross-examination on Wednesday, May 15, Counsel for Sarah Agyei (2nd Accused) asked Mr. Kufuor to tell the Court how long they deposited those monies at the storeroom.

In his response, he said they started in the past 20 years.

He also explained to the Court the methods employed by the accused persons to steal those monies.

“Later on at one of the confrontations where we were present, A1 (Patience Botwe) stated that the method adopted was that A2 (Sarah Agyei) would be in the room operating and A1 (Botwe) would be at the gate watching out and then A3 (Benjamin Sowah) supplied the main keys of the House for A1 (Botwe) to cut duplicate keys,” he told the Court under cross-examination.

Patience Botwe, 18, and Sarah Agyei, 30, together with Benjamin Sowah, Malik Dauda, Christiana Achab, Job Pomary, and Yahaya Sumaila have all denied the various charges pressed against them – ranging from conspiracy to steal, stealing, dishonestly receiving and money laundering.

Despite being granted bail, they have not been able to meet their respective bail conditions and are still in custody.

The 81-year-old professional architect with 53 years of experience said the accused persons stole two sets of US$210,000 and US$200,000 from their storeroom.

In addition to the dollars, he said another set of £300,000 belonging to him and GHc300,000 being contributions that Cecilia Dapaah’s siblings made towards the funeral of her late mother were also stolen.

“Subsequently, my wife and I found out that some of our valuables, as well as huge sums of money, had been stolen from the storeroom.

“This included an amount of 210,000 US Dollars which belonged to my wife’s deceased brother, Nana Akwasi Essan II alias Charles Dapaah,” he said.

Other monies he said were stolen from their storeroom were: “Two hundred thousand US Dollars ($200,000 USD) belonging to Dorcas Wiredua, my niece who is also my client.

“Three Hundred Thousand Euros (£300,000) belonging to me,” and “Three Hundred Thousand Ghana Cedis (GHc300,000) being contributions that my wife’s siblings and she made towards the funeral of her late mother.

“Fifty Thousand Ghana Cedis (GHc50,000) belonging to my wife,” he stated.

EIB network’s Legal Affairs Correspondent, Murtala Inusah, who was in Court reports that lawyers of Benjamin Sowah, 3rd Accused have been called upon to cross-examine the Witness on May 20.

The directive from Justice Marie-Louise Simmons, the presiding judge, was after Counsel for Sarah Agyei, Augustine Gyamfi ended his cross-examination.