COP Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo-Danquah
The Executive Director of the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO), COP Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo-Danquah, has announced that the organisation has decided to return the Cecilia Dapaah docket to the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP).
According to her, this is due to the lack of additional information required by EOCO to conduct investigations for potential prosecution of the crime of money laundering.
Addressing the media in Accra yesterday, COP Addo-Danquah said the decision was arrived at following the Attorney General’s (AG) advice on the matter.
She claimed that the AG noted in his recommendation that the OSP failed to offer a basis for its determination of potential money laundering crimes for investigation by EOCO.
“When the docket was referred to us, in the opinion of the Special Prosecutor, it bordered on money laundering. We requested the basis of the Special Prosecutor’s conclusion which enabled him to recommend that we continue. However, we have not received any response to date,” the EOCO boss noted.
She added, “After reviewing the entire docket, we found it difficult to proceed. Normally, after completing a docket, it can be sent to the Attorney General’s office for advice. However, in this case, we could not find a clear path forward.”
COP Addo-Danquah revealed that before the OSP delivered Cecilia Dapaah’s docket to EOCO, the AG had directed the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service to investigate the source of the funds.
“Money laundering is not a standalone crime; it is linked to unlawful activities. Therefore, money laundering can only be addressed when the money’s source is illegal activities,” she stated.
“Having not identified any predicate offence in the docket to pursue an investigation, we sought guidance from the Attorney General’s office,” she explained.
“The Attorney General indicated that since CID was already handling the case, there was no need for further action,” she added.
“If you read the AG’s advice, whatever that we would have done had already been directed at the police CID. And like he said this morning, when you investigate a case and you do not find anything, we should be bold enough to come and tell the public that for this case, even though I suspected this at the time, that wasn’t what came out; we should be bold,” she intimated.
“So, we cannot continue to be fishing like you don’t even know what you are looking for. You just go about looking for something that you know that you are not even sure about.
“So, what I am going to do is that with the AG’s advice, I will send the docket that we received from the OSP to him that there is nothing in it,” the EOCO boss emphasised.
Background
The Office of the Attorney General and Ministry of Justice have stated that the OSP referral to the EOCO for investigations into money laundering in the Cecilia Dapaah case was without merit.
As a result, the AG advised EOCO not to initiate money laundering investigations against the former Sanitation Minister.
“In the absence of the identification of any criminality associated with the properties retrieved from the suspects, the OSP’s referral to EOCO for investigations to be conducted into money laundering is without basis,” the AG said.
By Prince Fiifi Yorke