Cecilia Dapaah case: We’ve been storing money for the past 20 years — Husband
Daniel Osei Kuffuor, husband of the former Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, has told the court hearing the trial of the housemaids alleged to have stolen from the couple that they started storing the stolen moneys in their storeroom 20 years ago.
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Taking his turn as the first prosecution witness to testify in the case, Mr Kuffuor explained that the money did not only belong to him and his wife but other family members including his wife’s family.
Accused
Seven accused persons – Patience Botwe (former househelp), Sarah Agyei (former househelp), Benjamin Sowah, Malik Dauda, Christiana Achab, Job Pomary and Yahaya Sumaila – are facing multiple charges at the High Court in Accra over stolen moneys and items running into millions of cedis.
The accused persons have been charged with conspiracy, stealing, dishonestly, receiving and money laundering. However, they have pleaded not guilty to the charges and have been granted bail in the sum of GH¢ 5,250,000 with two sureties each for all seven accused persons but they have not been able to meet the conditions set by the court.
Explanation
Giving further details about the stolen money, Mr Kuffuor, who was under further cross-examination by Counsel for Agyei, said they had been depositing the money in the storeroom for the past 20 years.
He added that Sowah supplied the main keys to the house for Botwe to cut duplicate keys. “At one of the confrontations where we were present, Botwe stated that the method adopted was that Agyei would be in the room operating and Botwe would be at the gate watching out,” he told the court.
The witness further told the court that the accused persons stole two sets of $210,000 and $200,000 from their storeroom. In addition to the dollars, he said another set of £300,000 belonging to him and GH¢300,000 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.
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Other monies he said were stolen from their storeroom were $200,000 belonging to Dorcas Wiredua, my niece who is also my client. He said, “another GH¢50,000 belonging to my wife was also stolen”.
The case has been adjourned to Wednesday, May 20 this year for further cross-examination at the court presided over by Justice Marie-Louise Simmons.