An anti-corruption crusader, Vitus Azeem, has commended the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) for its efforts so far in its investigation of the scandal of the former Sanitation Minister, Cecilia Abena Dapaah.
This follows the startling details that have emerged from the Office of the Special Prosecutor, disclosing that a substantial sum of US$590,000 and GH¢2.730,000 in cash were unearthed during the search conducted at the Abelemkpe residence of the former Minister.
Officials from the OSP, therefore, took immediate action, seizing these substantial cash sums as crucial evidence to support the ongoing investigation.
The OSP has subsequently frozen the accounts of the former minister’s cedi and dollar accounts pending further investigations.
Speaking in an interview on Eyewitness News on Citi FM on Thursday, Mr Azeem urged the OSP to continue to be more proactive in its mandate to help erode corruption in the country.
“I think that the SP is doing a good job. This is what we were looking up to him for since 2018. We expect the OSP to be proactive and go after people no matter who they are when there are clear corruption allegations against them.”
Expatiating the anticipated proactiveness of the OSP, he said the OSP should move in quickly to investigate corruption-related allegations whenever they came up to ensure that issues of corruption were dealt with.
“Proactive in the sense that when there are credible allegations of corruption or movement of funds, then he should be able to go and verify the things,” he said.
Mr Azeem admitted that in a democratic country, the OSP could not just go round on impulse to search people’s houses but could liaise with other agencies or institutions to ensure that corruption or corruption-related cases were investigated.
“We are in a democracy and unless someone alleges or accuses you, or petitions the OSP, it will be difficult for him to just come to your house and say I want to check whether you have money in your house or not. So there has to be some kind of evidence or accusation that says that you are probably hoarding money in your house.”
“That is why we have the FIC, the bank is supposed to inform the FIC of any suspicious movement of huge sums of cash so if all the state institutions are working together it should be possible,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Financial Division of the High Court, Accra, is set to hear an application filed by the Special Prosecutor for confirmation of its decision to freeze some seven bank accounts of former Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, Cecilia Dapaah containing local and foreign currencies.
Court documents filed by the OSP on Tuesday, August 8, 2023, and sighted by Citi News have in them, a letter the office wrote to two banks (names withheld), to “with immediate effect direct the freezing of the bank accounts and investments of Cecilia Abena Dapaah with your bank pending investigations into suspected corruption and corruption-related offences in respect of your customer.”
The OSP has also denied disclosing any information or details about the bank accounts of former Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, Cecilia Abena Dapaah.
In a public notice, the OSP said it has not released any information about the bank accounts, which have been frozen by the Special Prosecutor.
“The OSP urges the public to disregard media accounts on purported bank balances reported to have been disclosed by the OSP,” the OSP said in a notice posted on its social media handles on Thursday, August 10, 2023.
The OSP’s denial comes after several media reports claimed that the office had revealed that Dapaah had $5 million and GHȼ48 million in her accounts with two banks in Ghana.
