Godfred Yeboah Dame
The Attorney General and Minister for Justice, Godfred Yeboah Dame, has directed the police to conduct further investigations into allegations made against the two house helps.
The AG, in his advice following a review of the case docket forwarded to his Office by the police, among others, called on the police to further investigate the ownership and source of the US$200,000 and €300,000 said to have been stolen from the couple’s bedroom.
The Police on July 24 forwarded the case docket to the Attorney General for advice regarding the charges levelled against the accused persons, among others.
The Attorney General, following a review of the docket has also called for further investigation into $800,000 belonging to Madam Dapaah’s deceased brother and the GH₵300,000 contribution towards her mother’s funeral contained in a box, and a bag that was stolen to ascertain the true ownership of the $800,000, and the source(s) from which the established owner of the $800,000 acquired the money.
The AG is also asking for further investigation into whether the accused persons actually stole the full amount of $800,000 from the house of Madam Dapaah and her husband because Patience was not arrested with any money on her the day Daniel Osei Kufuor found her in their bedroom.
The Attorney General also pointed out that it is important for the police to establish the ownership of various amounts of money dishonestly appropriated to avoid any duplicity in the charges.
Again, the AG wants the police to broaden their investigations to include money laundering and other financial crimes to cover the couple in view of the large sums of money they reported to have been stolen from their home given that Madam Dapaah until recently was a high level public official while her husband has indicated to the police he is an architect.
Observations
The Attorney General observed that even though the monetary value of the case exceeded GH¢500,000, the police had already taken charge statements from the accused persons and subsequently arraigned them without recourse to the AG’ Office contrary to a directive on them to submit dockets with monetary values exceeding GH¢500,000 to the Office for advice.
He also observed that Patience Botwe and Sarah Agyyei have dishonestly appropriated huge sums of money from the complainants, but the money and items retrieved and identified however fall below the amount of money said to have been stolen from the former minister and her husband.
“There is enough evidence to sustain the charges of conspiracy to steal and stealing the various amounts of money missing from the complainants’ room against the 1st and 2nd accused (Patience and Sarah),” the AG advised.
BY Gibril Abdu Razak