OSP cleared Cecilia Dapaah of corruption offence not me – Godfred Dame

Attorney General and Minister of Justice Godfred Yeboah Dame says the former sanitation minister Cecilia Abena Dapaah was cleared of any corruption-related offence by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) and not his office.

This follows reactions to the Attorney General's advice to the Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO) not to continue the money laundering probe into the affairs of Cecilia Dapaah.

The Attorney General's advice stated that the request from the OSP to EOCO for Cecilia Dapaah to be investigated for money laundering was without basis.

The Attorney General explained that the investigations by the OSP did not prove a predicate offence which will form the basis for a money laundering investigation.

The advice further noted that the OSP did not provide a copy of its collaborative investigations with the FBI of the United States which formed the basis for its decision to transfer the case to EOCO.

But the advice has since been criticized by anti-corruption agencies and civil society organizations with some accusing the Attorney General of seeking to clear Cecilia Dapaah with the letter.

In response, however, Godfred Yeboah Dame noted that if any institution cleared Cecilia Dapaah, then it was the office of the Special Prosecutor.

In an interview on Joy News, Godfred Yeboah Dame stated that 'the record must reflect the point that the OSP seized with the mandate to investigate corruption and corruption related offences, cleared Madam Cecilia Dapaah of corruption…'

He questioned why his office has been accused of clearing Cecilia Dapaah of corruption.

According to him, “EOCO never investigated her for corruption, the Attorney General has never investigated her for corruption. It is the OSP itself which conducted seven months of extensive investigations into it, and four months of what it describes as collaborative investigation and came to that conclusion.'”

While justifying reasons for his advice to the Economic and Organised Crime Office not to probe Cecilia Dapaah for money laundering, Godfred Yeboah Dame stated that the OSP's referral to the former sanitation minister was restricted in scope.

For him, a careful review of the referral letter suggests that the request bordered on funds alleged to have been transported by Cecilia Dapaah from the United States to Ghana.

He claims the referral did not include monies retrieved from the house of Cecilia Dapaah by officials from the OSP, nor monies in her bank accounts that were previously frozen or those allegedly stolen by her house helps.

The Attorney General in the same interview on the matter described some of the reactions to his letter including that of the Centre for Democratic Development as misleading.

-citinewsroom