Two former House maids of ex-Sanitation Minister Cecilia Dapaah, Patience Botwe and Sarah Agyei together with five others have been granted bail in a combined sum of GH¢5, 250, 000 with two sureties each to be justified with landed properties.

Botwe, 18, and the other accused persons have all pleaded not guilty to 31 counts when they made their first appearance at the High Court.

As part of their bail conditions, the Court said one of the sureties each must be a resident in the Greater Accra Region and “they should be gainfully employed.”

Justice Marie-Louise Simmons, the trial judge presiding over the Criminal Court ‘2’ of the High Court in Accra, also said, “The resident of the sureties and accused must be inspected and known to the case Investigator who is required to look for them when they run away.”

Justice Simmons also directed that each sureties is to provide a copy of their Ghana Card to the Registrar whilst the Police Investigator is to take photographs of all the accused persons portraying their facials and make three copies.

Justice Simmons said, each of the copies should be placed on the bail bond on the Registrar’s documents, the court files and a copy retained by the Police.

The Court also said that the Registrar is to forward a copy of the bail bond to the court while the cost of taking the pictures should be borne by the sureties.

Botwe, 18, and 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.

They are before the Court in connection with the stolen $1 million, 300, 000 euros and some properties worth millions of Ghana cedis.

In Court on Friday, November 10, 2023, Justice Simmons also directed the Prosecution led by Akosua Agyepomaa Agyemang, an Assistant State Attorney, to file disclosures and witness statements and have same served on the accused and their lawyers by December 8.

The accused persons are represented by lawyers Augustine Gyemfi, Yaw Dankwah and Adams Abdul Basit.

The case has been adjourned to December 12 for a Case Management Conference.

According to EIB Network’s Legal Affairs Correspondent, Murtala Inusah, the husband of Madam Cecilia Dapaah, Daniel Osei Kuffuor, one of the Complainants was present in Court.

New charges

On November 8, a charge sheet was filed at the High Court which proffered some 31 counts, eight more than the 14 that were on the amended charge sheet which was withdrawn on Wednesday, November 8, at the Circuit Court.

The 31 new counts comprised of five counts of conspiracy, six counts of stealing, nine counts of dishonestly receiving and 11 counts of money laundering.

Patience Botwe, 18, and seven others have been charged for allegedly stealing various sums of money including $1 million, 300, 000 euros and other properties.

They have since July 6, this year, been put before the Circuit Court while investigations were ongoing.

Patience Botwe, 18, hairdresser together with Sarah Agyei, 30, unemployed, Benjamin Sowah, 29, plumber, Malik Dauda,34, unemployed, Christiana Achab, a trader, Job Pomary, a mechanic, and Yahaya Sumaila, Excavator operator, were on a provisional 14 counts of Offences before it was withdrawn.