According to Cecilia Abena Dapaah, a former minister of sanitation and water resources, her stolen jewelry was obtained over a 35-year span.
The former minister said that the stolen jewelry alone was worth $95,000 when she appeared before the High Court in Accra, where seven people—including her former housekeepers—are accused of taking cash and jewelry from her house.
She further told the court that $210,000 that belonging to her late brother, Nana Akwasi Essan II, also known as Charles Dapaah, was stolen by the defendants.
She clarified that the $210,000 was a portion of the $800,000 that, at their mother’s request, her older brother Henry Osei Kwabena had given to her for safekeeping after Nana Essan II’s death.
Additional sums purportedly taken from her storage include GH¢500,000 of her own cash, £300,000 that belonged to her husband, GH¢200,000 that belonged to her late mother’s final funeral rites payments, and $200,000 that belonged to her husband’s client and relative, Dorcas Wiredua.
The seven defendants—Patience Botwe, a former housekeeper; Sarah Agyei, a former housekeeper; Benjamin Sowah; Malik Dauda; Christiana Achab; Job Pomary; and Yahaya Sumaila—are charged with conspiracy, theft, dishonest receipt, and money laundering, among other offenses. However, they have been released on bail after entering not guilty pleas to all of the accusations.
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