Private Legal Practitioner, Martin Kpebu, has expressed disappointment over the decision by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) to drop the criminal trial, the application to confirm the seizure, and the freezing of the funds and bank accounts of the former Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, Cecilia Dapaah.
Despite this, Mr Kpebu admits the decision was required by law and believes that the work done by the OSP had played a crucial role in the country’s governance discourse and confirmed corruption within the administration led by Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. The Special Prosecutor, Kissi Agyebeng, at a press conference in Accra on Thursday, said his outfit had discontinued its case against the former sanitation minister and her associates and officially transferred the same to the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO).
Mr Agyebeng explained that his office took the decision because it realised that the case did not fall under its remit. He said no direct and immediate evidence of corruption was found in the seized funds and frozen bank accounts associated with Ms Dapaah and her associates.
This conclusion was reached after nearly seven months of extensive investigation by the OSP and a concurrent inquiry by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of the United States. Speaking to Umaru Sanda Amadu on Eyewitness News on Thursday, Mr Kpebu said, “It’s quite sad. It’s sad, but that’s the state of the law. But thank God, you know even though initially I was excited, but you know, as the weeks went on, it became clear that we were not getting any headway in terms of who brought the money.”
“But I am still excited that the fact that we found hardcore evidence has given us an opportunity to bash this government and hold them accountable. These are the things that we have always known have been happening, but Akufo-Addo denied that there is no corruption in his government. So though so far we don’t have hardcore evidence that it is corruption, that case still serves a very critical purpose in our governance discourse. We are still using it sufficiently in our public space. So for me in that case means we have not lost it all.”
By: Abigail Arthur
