President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has accepted the resignation of Cecilia Abena Dapaah from office as the Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources.
The embattled minister tendered in her resignation on Saturday July 22, 2023 following reports that her domestic workers have allegedly stolen huge sums of money from her Abelemkpe residence here in Accra
In a letter accepting the minister’s resignation, President Akufo-Addo applauded Ms Dapaah’s loyalty to the government and said her integrity would be established.
“It is with considerable regret that I accept your resignation, and I applaud your loyalty to the image and standing of the Government.
“The work you undertook during your time in Government was excellent and productive and I thank you for your wholehearted contribution and devotion to the progress of the Government and the nation.
“I am confident, like you, that, at the end of the day, your integrity, whilst in office will fully be established,” the letter addressed to Ms Dapaah said.
She has been the subject of social and traditional media discussion since news broke that her domestic worker and her predecessor connived to allegedly steal US$1 million, €300,000, GH¢350,000, assorted clothes worth GH¢95,000, handbags US$35,000, and perfumes worth US$1,400 belonging to Ms Dapaah and her husband, Daniel Osei Kuffuor.
In her resignation letter dated Saturday July 22, 2023, and addressed to Akufo-Addo, Ms Dapaah said it had been a privilege to serve in the government.
“It has been a great privilege and honour for me to have been given the opportunity to serve in your government and an even greater honour to have worked to try and bring your great vision for our country to fruition.”
According to her, reports about the alleged theft in the house she lived with her husband and daughter sought to suggest that she owns various huge sums of foreign currencies and millions of Ghana cedis which have been stolen from her home.
“Whereas I can state emphatically that those figures do not represent correctly what my husband and I reported to the police, I am very much aware of the import of such stories around someone in my position.
“I am resigning therefore because I do not want this matter to become a preoccupation of government and a hindrance to the work of government at such a crucial time.”
She, however, expressed her willingness to cooperate fully with all state agencies to enable them fully establish the facts of the matter.
“I have no doubt whatsoever that at the end of the processes, it will be fully established that I have conducted myself with integrity during my period in public service and I will be fully exonerated from all the allegations that have filled the public domain in the past 24 hours.”
In all, five people, Patience Botwe and Sarah Agyei, domestic workers, Benjamin Sowah and Malik Dauda, Patience’s current and former boy lover respectively and Kwaku Botwe, Patience’s father are standing trial in the Circuit Court for theft and dishonestly receiving contrary to the provisions of the Criminal Offences Act.
A former two-term Member of Parliament (MP) for the Bantama Constituency in the Ashanti region, Mrs Dapaah was Aviation Minister in the first term of the Akufo-Addo administration.
She was subsequently reshuffled to the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources and was retained in that ministry in the second until her resignation.
She served as a Deputy Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing in the John Agyekum Kufuor administration in 2005 and subsequently a substantive minister in 200
BY JULIUS YAO PETETSI
