xThe former Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources, Cecilia Dapaah, has reacted to news reports of the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) finding $5 million and GH¢48 million in her bank accounts.
JoyNews reported that documents it intercepted showed the amounts of money found in the former minister’s Prudential Bank and Société Générale Ghana accounts which the OSP had frozen.
It stated that US$5 million and GH¢48 million were found in Cecelia Dapaah’s Prudential Bank accounts, whiles GH¢1 million in investments and GH¢700,00 in cash were found in her Société Générale account.
In a statement issued by her lawyers, Cecilia Dapaah, indicated that the figures alleged to be in her Prudential Bank account were mere fabrications.
The statement indicated that the OSP never stated the amounts found in the accounts in question in an application it filed at the High Court to confirm the freeze of the former minister’s assets as reported by the media house. “On 8 August 2023, the Office of the Special Prosecutor… filed an application in the High Court, Financial Division to confirm among others a freezing order regarding our client’s bank accounts.
Although, the Application did not disclose any specific amounts of money found in the bank accounts, your news outlet, JoyNews published false information about the amounts in those accounts while ascribing the information to nameless, unidentified and unverifiable sources. “Not only had the OSP not disclosed any amounts found in our client’s accounts, but the assertion that our client’s accounts contain $5m and GH¢48m is false,” parts of the statement, reads.
The lawyers also stated that even after the OSP said it had not disclosed the sums of money in their client’s accounts the media house went on to publish more false stories.
“Indeed, at about 4 pm of that same day, 10th August 2023, the Office of the Special Prosecutor via one of its verified social media handles “Office of the Special Prosecutor-Ghana, @ospghana” rebutted and dispelled claims that it had revealed any specific amounts of monies found in our client’s bank accounts.
“Despite this rebuttal, at 7 pm of 10 August 2023, your outfit continued to post material alluding to the false statement that $5m and GH¢48m had been found in our client’s bank accounts,” the lawyers said.
The lawyers threatened to take legal action against the media house if it fails to issue a retraction on the publications in question within three days.
