Office of the Attorney-General and Ministry of Justice has issued legal advice to the police on the theft case involving former sanitation minister, Cecilia Abena Dapaah.
Police after the first hearing of the case on July 20, wrote to the A-G’s office seeking advice on how to proceed with the case.
In a nine-page legal advice available to GhanaWeb, the office recounted the sequence of events leading to the theft of monies as reported by the former minister and her husband, Daniel Osei Kuffuor – the complainants.
The document signed by Deputy A-G, Alfred Tuah-Yeboah, also analyzed the docket as prepared by the police and the charges preferred against the five accused persons.
It called generally for further investigations into the issue of the amount of monies discovered. A decoupling of and in some instances total dropping of some charges brought against some of the accused.
In the case of one accused person, the A-G asked that all charges brought against him be dismissed.
The concluding part of the A-G’s advice read: “We note that you are investigating the acquisition of various properties by the 1st and 2nd accused persons, which investigations border on money laundering.
The advice rendered above implies that you should broaden the investigations on money laundering and other financial crimes to cover the complainants in order to establish the matters raised above. This is in light of the huge volumes of cash reported by the complainants to have been stolen from their home.
“It is also noted that Cecilia Abena Dapaah until recently was a high-level public official whilst her husband, Daniel Osei Kuffuor, in his statement to the Police, indicated his profession as an architect.
“Your investigation into these matters is required to enable the Attorney-General take a comprehensive decision on the case.
“We advise that you comply with the directives on further investigations in this advice and submit the outcome of your investigations to this office.”