Nana Ohene Ntow, senior advisor to Alan John Kwadwo Kyerematen, founder of Movement for Change, has said the Cecilia Dapaah bribery scandal investigation may have been foiled by President Akufo-Addo when he said he was certain the woman was going to be acquitted.
According to him, since the leadership of the investigative institutions, together with the Attorney-General who wields the power to prosecute, are all appointed by the President, they are likely to conduct themselves in a way that will affirm the statement the President made.
After her resignation as Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources following her missing cash scandal, President Akufo-Addo in the resignation acceptance letter disclosed that he was confident she was going to be exonerated.
“I am confident, like you, that, at the end of the day, your integrity, whilst in office, will be fully established. I wish you the very best in all your endeavours,” the President said in his letter.
The statement, is what Nana Ohene Ntow, a former stalwart of the New Patriotic Party, is saying has the potential to alter the integrity of the probe.
“My concerns on this matter stems from a statement that the President Akufo-Addo made when this issue broke. When he said that he has absolute faith that by the time all the chips are down, the matters are investigated, Madam Cecilia Abena Dapaah would be innocent. I thought that was a horrible statement for the President, who himself is a lawyer, and who is the head of government under whom all public institutions operate, to have said that,” he said.
He continued that “if I were an investigator, and you assigned me to go investigate this matter, with this statement of the President at the back of my mind, what do you expect me to do? I should investigate and implicate somebody, even on the basis of evidence.”
“It’s not everybody who can gather that kind of courage. So I think to that extent, the President himself may have compromised the whole process right from day one, with that single last statement,” he added.
His comments stem from the Attorney-General’s advice to the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) against conducting investigation into the money laundering aspect of the scandal.
The matter was referred to the EOCO by the Office of the Special Prosecutor who said its mandate was limited with regards to investigating money laundering.
Meanwhile, the Attorney General’s Office has noted that it has not closed investigations on the matter since the police are still probing it.
We have not closed doors for investigation into Cecilia Dapaah’s case – Attorney-General’s office
