Cecilia Dapaah
Husband of former Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources, Daniel Osei Kuffuor, has detailed the various amounts of monies in different currencies and valuables stolen by their house maids in their home, leading to their arrest.
According to him, the two maids stole €300,000 belonging to him and GH¢300,000 being contributions that Cecilia Dapaah’s siblings made towards the funeral of her late mother.
The 85-year-old Architect also told the court that two sets of $210,000.00 and $200,000.00 was also stolen from their storeroom by the maids.
Patience Botwe and Sarah Agyei, the two housemaids of the former minister, have been charged for conspiring and stealing a total of $410,000, €300,000 and GH¢350,000 from their former employers, leading to Madam Dapaah resigning from her position following public outcry.
Benjamin Sowah, Malik Dauda, Christiana Achab, Job Pomary and Yahaya Sumaila, are facing charges of dishonestly receiving a total of GH¢4,010,000 and $14,000 from the housemaids.
Mr. Kuffuor who is the prosecution’s first witness, led in his evidence-in-chief by Christabel Selma Anafure, an Assistant State Attorney, told the court last Friday that they employed Patience Botwe to work as a house help in their house in July 2022.
He said after he found Patience Botwe in their bedroom on October 6, 2022, they later realized their valuables have been stolen.
He gave the breakdown of the monies stolen as $210,000.00 which belonged to his wife’s deceased brother, Nana Akwasi Essan II alias Charles Dapaah.
Others include $200,000.00 which belonged to Dorcas Wiredua, “my niece who is also my client.”
€300,000.00 belonging to him GH¢300,000.00 “being contributions that my wife’s siblings and she made towards the funeral of her late mother.”
Mr. Kuffuor said the housemaids also stole GH¢50,000.00 belonging to Madam Dapaah.
“After my wife and I noticed our belongings and monies were missing, we tried to get the 1st accused (Patience Botwe) to return the stolen items because of the relationship we have with Malik Dauda, the 4th accused person.
But he said he and the wife noticed that Patience Botwe was determined not to return the monies, adding that “the police had informed us that their investigations had revealed that our monies had been shared to different persons including the accused persons herein.”
“The police initially arraigned the 1st accused person (Botwe) before the court and she was granted bail, however, we were later informed that she jumped bail.”
Mr. Kuffuor also told the court that “My wife did a stock-taking and informed me that she found out that her jewelry that she had purchased within a period of 35 years, valued at $95,000.00 were also missing.”
Recounting events leading to the arrest of Patience Botwe, the witness told the court that on October 6, 2022, he left the house with his driver around 7:30 am to Akyim Oda for a family meeting.
He said they drove to Dome to pick up his lawyer who was to go with him to Akyim Oda, but when they reached his house, the lawyer advised him to postpone the trip.
He therefore, went back home when he realised that the lights in the bedroom corridor which he had earlier switched off, were on and he further heard unusual noises which got him alarmed because he suspected that there was an intruder in the house.
He said he then went to the bedroom and saw that the door was opened with a strange key which had been left in the keyhole.
“Before entering the storeroom, I realized that the storeroom was opened with the original key which had always been safely kept in the master bedroom. I entered the storeroom and there I saw the 1st accused person hiding behind the door,” Mr. Kuffuor told the court.
Subsequent events in the house led the arrest of Patience Botwe who was handed over to the Tesano Police station.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak