Private legal practitioner, Martin Kpebu says the road to justice begins with naming and shaming as in the case of Cecilia Dapaah.
Mr. Martin Kpebu said the self destructive action of Cecilia Dapaah was the first step to seeing Justice.
“whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad’ Mr. Kpebu told Bridget Otoo on Metro TV’s one on one.
But for Cecilia Dapaa’s actions of reporting the house-helps to the police, and the subsequent trial at the Juvenile court, the Ghanaian public would not have been able to uncover all the details about the huge sums of money the former minister of Sanitation and Water resources kept in her home.
Mr. Kpebu believes even if the Special Prosecutor fails to gather enough evidence to bring corruption charges against Madam Cecelia Dapaah, there could be confiscation of property. A practice which has been in existence since Kwame Nkrumah’s era.
“first one, she has lost her position, she has been named and shamed even though we are not done with the proceedings, Akufo-Addo is suffering his own brunt out of it and he is even the bigger loser because he has got his fingers burnt, all these are justice, naming and shaming and all that.” He said.
Mr. Martin Kpebu said constitution makes it possible for the state to confiscate unexplained wealth.
“the constitutions says if we find you with any sum of money that you can’t account for, that is you can’t say its yours because it is a loan, income a gift or it is your inheritance then it is unexplained wealth, we’ll take it, that is what the constitution says”
“Article 286 (4), that is why the public asked how she got the money. It is a legitimate question. So, that particular one is separate from the investigation to be able to unravel corruption or bribery etc.
“Meaning that, if Mr Kissi Agyebeng is not able to gather evidence to make a case of bribery and corruption, there is still the lower threshold which is that, by our constitution if you can’t explain well how you got the money, it’s unexplained wealth so we take it”
Mr. Martin Kpebu is confident that regardless of the outcome of the investigations by the office of the special prosecutor, there will still be justice for the Ghanaian people through confiscation of her property which her income does not support.
“The special prosecutor would “go back to court for confiscation proceedings so in that case, they are only confiscating, nobody will say madam Dapaah was involved in corruption or bribery if you don’t have evidence of those crimes, that’s it. It didn’t start today, from Kwame Nkrumah’s time we’ve always have that law, so when Kwame Nkrumah was overthrown with all his appointees they were paraded before the Jiagge commission, those who couldn’t account for were prosecuted and properties confiscated, so the point I’m making is that it is not today”
Martin Kpebu explained that it would be impossible for Cecilia Dapaah to wish the proceedings away and encouraged Ghanaians to keep talking about the case as that would put pressure on the state agencies working on it to also stay on the matter.
Background
Multiple theft-related accusations have been brought against two house-helps who worked for the Former Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources. The house-helps stole millions in dollars, cedis, and goods in jewellery and kente cloth worth thousands of cedis along with their accomplices, which included a boyfriend, an ex-boyfriend, and the father of one of their house-helps.
The house-helps and their collaborators purchased properties in the Central, Northern, and Greater Accra regions.
Public outcry over the court of the unexplained wealth led to the resignation of the Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources
The suspected theft allegedly occurred in 2022 between July and October.
Ghanaians flooded the OSP’s office with over 200 formal complaints regarding the source of the monies due to the amounts involved.
The Special Prosecutor then announced that his office was investigating the case, beginning with the arrest and subsequent bail of former minister, Madam Cecilia Dapaah.
The Circuit Court in Accra has also remanded five of the seven suspects accused of stealing parts of the money from the former minister’s home while two who are nursing mothers have been granted bail.
Credit to 247newsgh.com
