A reliving judge has taken over the Special Prosecutor’s application seeking confirmation of the freezing and seizure of properties of former Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources, Cecilia Abena Dapaah.
The takeover though, has nothing to do with the OSP’s petition to the Chief Justice seeking the removal of Justice Edward Twum from continuing to hear the cases.
The temporal takeover by Justice Nana Brew is as a result of Justice Twum proceeding on a two-month leave as he was one of the 19 judges who sat during the legal vacation.
The OSP’s application seeking confirmation of seizure and freezing of assets as well as the case against Madam Dapaah for failing to declare her assets, were adjourned to December 22, 2023.
This was after Justice Brew had indicated that the court as at yesterday did not have the case docket.
The OSP arrested Madam Dapaah on July 24, 2023, on suspicion of corruption and corruption-related offences after she and her husband, Daniel Osei Kuffuor reported huge sums of money was stolen from their home by their two house maids.
It then administratively froze the bank accounts of the former minister and filed an application before an Accra High Court seeking to confirm the $590,000 and GH¢2.86 million seized at her home as well as the freezing of the accounts pending further investigation into the true ownership and source of the monies.
An Accra High Court presided over by Justice Edward Twum, however, dismissed the application, indicating that based on the available facts before it, there was no justifiable basis for the authorised officers of the OSP to exercise the powers of seizure without a court warrant or order.
The OSP subsequently released the funds to Madam Dapaah and also lifted the freeze on the accounts, but later seized the money and again froze the accounts and subsequently filed another application seeking confirmation of the seizure and freeze.
The Office, in its new application, avers that its criminal intelligence suggested that Madam Dapaah had unexplained large cash sums of money far above her income as a Minister of State stashed up in her residence.”
During the pendency of the case, the OSP wrote to the Chief Justice petitioning her to remove Justice Twum from the case and any other case being prosecuted by the Office, alleging bias against the Office, and the person of the Special Prosecutor, Kissi Agyebeng.
The petition was declined by the Chief Justice Gertrude Torkorno through a letter written by the Judicial Secretary, Justice Cynthia Pamela Addo.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak