The accused leaving court yesterday
The Office of the Attorney General has proffered 31 new charges against the two housemaids of former Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, Cecilia Dapaah and her husband, Daniel Osei Kuffuor, together with five other persons.
The new charges include 11 counts of money laundering, which hitherto was not part of the charges for which the seven (7) were standing trial before a Circuit Court in Accra.
The seven were rearrested yesterday after a Circuit Court in Accra presided over by Her Honour Afia Owusua Appiah, discharged them when the case was withdrawn by the prosecution to pursue it at the High Court.
New Charges
Court documents filed at the registry of the Criminal Division of the High Court in Accra details how the two housemaids hatched a plan and duplicated the keys to the couple’s bedroom and store room, which they gained access to in their absence.
Patience Botwe and Sarah Agyei, the two housemaids, are facing four counts of conspiracy to steal and six counts of substantive charges of stealing.
Court documents indicate that the two conspired to steal and successfully stole a total of $410,000, €300,000 and GH¢350,000.
The documents gave the breakdown of the monies as $200,000 belonging to Dorcas Akua Owiredu, niece to Mr. Kuffuor which she had sent for the construction of a project; $210,000 missing from a box containing about $800,000 belonging to Madam Dapaah’s deceased brother, €300,000 belonging to Mr. Kuffuor; GH¢300, being contribution for Madam Dapaah’s mother’s funeral and another GH¢50,000 which belonged to the former minister.
Sara Agyei is again accused of stealing assorted jewelries totaling $95,000 belonging to the former minister.
The other five accused; Benjamin Sowah, Malik Dauda, Christiana Achab, Job Pomary and Yahaya Sumaila, are facing charges of dishonestly receiving various sums of the stolen money.
Together, the five have been accused of receiving a total of GH¢4,010,000 and $14,000 from the housemaids.
All the seven have also been charged for laundering the various sums of monies which they used in purchasing properties knowing that the monies were proceeds of crime.
Facts
The facts of the case state that on June 27, 2023, Patience Botwe and Benjamin Sowah, who is her boyfriend, were arrested in Tamale by the police upon a tipoff.
The accused persons were found in a fully furnished four-bedroom apartment rented by Patience with the monies she stole from the complainant’s house.
The police retrieved $10,000, GH¢7,619.70, a Honda Civic salon car, an unregistered Hyundai Elantra salon car, seven ladies’ handbags, two HP laptop computers, 32-inch Samsung television set and a home theatre system from the apartment.
They were handed over to the police in Accra on July 1, 2023, and Patience led the police to a three-bedroom house at Amrahia which she bought for GH¢850,000 using part of the stolen monies.
The police retrieved several items from the house, which was fully furnished, including an amount of $30,000 and GH¢65,000 found in a wardrobe in the house.
‘Confessions’
Patience, according to court documents, is said to have confessed to stealing money from the complainants’ room with Sara Agyei on different occasions.
She further stated that Sara gave her GH¢100,000 to be given to the Malik Dauda, which she did.
Benjamin, according to the facts, has admitted that Patience Botwe had been giving him monies frequently, which he knew were stolen, and also confirmed that Patience gave him GH¢80,000 to buy an Elantra sports car for her, as well as $14,300 to buy a Honda Civic car for her.
Malik Dauda, who is an ex-boyfriend to Patience, is said to have admitted receiving GH¢100,000 from both housemaids.
Christiana Achab, according to the documents, also admitted to having collected several amounts of money from Patience Botwe to acquire properties for and on her behalf.
Items Bought
The discovery includes an 11-unit chamber and hall self-contain house purchased at the cost of GH¢800,000 at Budumburam by Christiana Achab.
Christiana Achab, according to court documents, also purchased a three-bedroom house at Aplaku at the sum of GH¢300,000 for Patience Botwe.
She and her husband Job Pomary also purchased a four-bedroom apartment at Kokrobite at the cost of GH¢280,000 for herself, while she also invited another suspect, Yahaya Sumaila from Tamale in the Northern Region to Accra and purchased another three-bedroom apartment at Amrahia at the cost of GH¢850,000 in his name from an amount of GH¢1 million given to her by Patience Botwe.
Christiana Achab, according to prosecuting documents, also purchased two Honda Acura vehicles at the cost of GH¢300,000 each and registered them in the name of Franklin Sarakpo, her son who is on the run.
The price of a three-bedroom mansion built by Sarah Agyei, at Budumburam was not specified.
It also brings the total number of vehicles identified to four, costing a total of GH¢1.58 million, while two properties which were rented in Tamale cost a total of GH¢225,000.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak