Cecilia Dapaah resigns as Sanitation Minister

Cecilia Abena Dapaah, Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, has resigned.

On Friday, July 21, it was revealed that the Minister’s two housekeepers were being tried by an Accra Circuit Court for allegedly stealing money totaling $1 million, $300,000, and millions of Ghanaian cedis in October 2022 from her home in Abelenkpe, Accra.

Between July and October 2022, the two, Sarah Agyei, 30, and Patience Botwe, 18, are accused of stealing the couple’s money and personal belongings.

Both are accused of conspiring to conduct a crime on one count and of stealing US$1 million, €300,000, and millions of Ghana cedis on five more counts.

Since she holds an Article 71 office, many individuals, including the Minority Leader Cassiel Ato Forson, called for her resignation to allow for an impartial investigation to determine the source of the monies.

She had responded to rumours of the funds being taken and the pending trial prior to her departure and claimed that they had “noticeable inconsistencies.”

Read the Minister’s resignation letter below

LETTER OF RESIGNATION

22/7/23

I write to inform you that I wish to resign from my position as Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources.

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.

Since yesterday, Friday, July 21, 2023, social and traditional media have been full of stories about a court case involving a theft that took place last year in the home I live with my husband and daughter. The stories sought to suggest that I own various huge sums of foreign currencies and millions of Ghana cedis which have been stolen from my 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.

I intend to cooperate fully with all state agencies to enable them fully establish the facts.

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.

I thank you my dear, Mr President, for the honour done me in giving me the opportunity to serve our beautiful nation Ghana.