General News of Thursday, 16 May 2024

Source: www.ghanaweb.com

Cecilia Dapaah's GH¢50K, my £300K, GH¢300K funeral cash - Husband breaks down stolen cash in court

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Daniel Osei-Kufuor, the husband of the former Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources, has allocated names to the monies stolen at their residence at Ablemkpe in Accra.

Appearing in an Accra High Court hearing the case of theft against their two housemaids, Osei-Kufuor confirmed that the monies belonged to different people and that the ex-minister's share was only 50,000 cedis.

Aside from his wife, some of the money belonged to himself, his wife’s family (funeral donation), and his niece who was also his client.

Kufuor, is the first prosecution witness in the case involving the two maids, Patience Botwe and Sarah Agyei, along with five others.

Under further cross-examination on Wednesday, May 15, Counsel for Sarah Agyei (2nd accused) asked the witness about how long they deposited those monies at the storeroom.

Per GhanaWeb's computation, the stolen monies came up to about 410,000 US dollars and not the initial amount of one million dollars in the statement to the police.

Breakdown of who owns how much of stolen funds:

US$210,000 - Belonging to wife's deceased brother.

US$200,000 - Dorcas Wiredua, his niece who is also a client.

£300,000 - Belonging to himself.

GH¢300,000 - Contributions that Cecilia Dapaah’s siblings made towards the funeral of her late mother.

GH¢50,000 - Belonging to Cecilia Dapaah.

What he told the court according to Starr FM report:

“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.

Accused granted bail but still in custody:

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.

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.