My $95,000 stolen pieces of jewellery were purchased over 35 years - Cecilia Dapaah tells Accra court

Former Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources Cecilia Abena Dapaah has told the Accra High Court that her pieces of jewellery that were stolen in 2022 were purchased over a period of 35 years. 

Appearing before the High Court to testify in the substantive case in which seven people, including her house helps, are facing charges for allegedly stealing monies and pieces of jewellery from her house, the former minister said the pieces of jewellery alone were valued at $95,000.

In addition to this, she told the court that the accused persons stole $210,000, which belonged to her deceased brother Nana Akwasi Essan II aka Charles Dapaah.

The $210,000, she said, was part of an amount of $800,000 that her elder brother (Henry Osei Kwabena) brought to her upon the instructions of her mother for safekeeping after Nana Essan II’s demise.

According to her, other monies stolen from her storeroom were $200,000 belonging to Dorcas Wiredua, a client and relative of her husband; £300,000 belonging to her husband; GH¢300,000 being contributions towards the then-upcoming final funeral rites of her late mother; and GH¢50,000 being her personal money.

Accused

Seven accused persons – Patience Botwe (former house help), Sarah Agyei (former house help), Benjamin Sowah, Malik Dauda, Christiana Achab, Job Pomary and Yahaya Sumaila – are facing multiple charges at the High Court in Accra over stolen monies and items running into millions of cedis.

The accused persons have been charged with conspiracy, stealing, dishonestly receiving money and money laundering. However, they have pleaded not guilty to the charges and have been granted bail. 

Account

Narrating her account of the incident, Ms Dapaah told the court that in October 2022, she was bereaved and travelled to Kumasi when she received a phone call from her husband that he had caught Patience Botwe in one of the bedrooms at the house, which serves as their storeroom.

Following the call, she said as a couple, they agreed that the accused should be sent to the Tesano Police Station to complain.

“My husband later called me to inform me that when he returned home from the police station, he noticed that the bedroom which we used as our storeroom had been ransacked.

“I returned home on October 10, 2022, and when I entered the storeroom, I noticed that it had indeed been ransacked and some of our belongings and valuable possessions were missing,” she said.

Ms Dapaah further told the court that she realised that a substantial number of her valuable clothes (sewn and unsewn), kente cloths, dresses, skirt suits, blouses, handbags, lace fabrics and perfumes were all missing.

She added that after they noticed that their belongings and money were missing, they hoped to impress upon Botwe to return the stolen items because of their relationship with her and Malik Dauda.

“However, after some time elapsed, we noticed that Botwe would not return the monies. In addition, the police had informed us that their investigations had revealed that our monies had been distributed to different persons, including the accused persons herein,” she added.

She said that the police initially arraigned Botwe before the court, but they were later informed that she jumped bail and was later re-arrested.

Following this, she said she took stock of her missing belongings and realised that her jewellery was missing.