The Member of Parliament for Tamale Central, Ibrahim Murtala Mohammed, has described President Nana Akufo-Addo’s comments on immediate past Sanitation and Water Resources Minister, Cecilia Dapaah as unfortunate.
This follows the President’s assertion that Madam Dapaah’s integrity will be established after huge amounts of foreign exchange was stolen from her home, forcing her to resign.
In a letter accepting the resignation of Cecilia Abena Dapaah, President Akufo-Addo showered praises on her and affirmed his belief in her integrity.
A portion of the letter read, “I am confident, like you, that, at the end of the day, your integrity, whilst in office, will be fully established. I wish you the very best in all your endeavors.”
Speaking to JoyNews, Mr Mohammed stressed that the presidency was already seeking to clear the Minister even before an investigation.
“I have been saying this since 2017, that the Flagstaff House is the seat of corruption and many people thought I just hated this president. Every single corruption can be traced to the Flagstaff House. I am only shocked that the Special Prosecutor has not begun investigating this matter, perhaps they need to have an official communication because they do not need to be petitioned before they can commence investigation into the matter,” he stated.
Touching on some attempts made by NPP communicators to defend the former Sanitation Minister, the MP argued that corruption is not only a result of poverty but greed.
“The fact that she had the luxury to resign speaks volumes and the attempt to defend this woman is appalling. I have heard NPP communicators who have argued that she performed two major funerals and that could be donation proceeds. The woman came and in an attempt to defend herself lied and said that the figure that was published by the media is not the accurate figure when in actual fact on the charge sheet the media is not wrong on the total amount of money that she claimed was taken from home.
“This morning I had a programme on a sister media house and we had a Member of Parliament from NPP who argued that the money could be inheritance.
“There is this mindset of the Ghanaian people that it is only poor people who are corrupt, and I don’t know where it is coming from. The argument is that the woman was already rich, the argument is that the husband was already rich as if those who are corrupt are only those who are poor. The reason why people are corrupt is not because they need the money, but it is because corruption is driven by greed. Unfortunately, we find some people in the media defending this insulting incident,” he stressed.
The member of the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament also chastised the Akufo-Addo government for asking Ghanaians to make sacrifices during the peak of the economic crisis when appointees including ministers and deputies were living comfortably.
“This government will have no justification in asking Ghanaians not to hoard money. You remember when the cedi lost its value, we had NPP communicators and government appointees arguing that the reason why the cedi was losing its value was because of the unpatriotic nature and attitude of some Ghanaians and their reason was that Ghanaians were hoarding money, changing their cedis to dollars and stockpiling them. But it is very clear those who are stock piling them. When the President and the NPP government were admonishing Ghanaians to behave in a patriotic manner by not changing their money and to stop piling them at that time they were deceiving us.
“Even as the President was asking us to tighten our belt, he asked his ministers and appointees to take off their belts. I told the public that at the Public Accounts Committee what we do over the years is to ensure that state monies are not misappropriated to ensure that those who are taking money illegally bring it back, and we have succeeded in getting some, but I think we need to abandon this job and start visiting the homes of ministers and deputy ministers. If we begin to do so, I think we will get a lot of money but maybe perhaps, I need to resign and apply to be a house boy of one of the ministers under Nana Addo.”
Background
It emerged on Friday, July 21 that two house helps of the immediate past Sanitation Minister were facing charges before an Accra Circuit Court for allegedly stealing an amount of $1 million, €300,000, and millions of Ghanaian cedis at the former minister’s residence at Abelenkpe, Accra, in October 2022.
The two, 18-year-old Patience Botwe and 30-year-old Sarah Agyei allegedly stole the monies and personal effects of the couple, between the months of July and October 2022.
Both have been charged with one count of conspiracy to commit a crime and five counts of stealing US$1 million, €300,000, and millions of Ghana cedis alongside their accomplices.
ALSO READ: