The Special Prosecutor, William Kissi Agyebeng, has disclosed that the new leadership of the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO), under the leadership of ace investigative journalist, Raymond Archer, has asked for the docket on the case involving the former Minister of Sanitation, Cecilia Abena Dapaah.
The development, is what has been applauded by private legal practitioner, Martin Luther Kpebu. He believes the directive is an indication of restoration of hope that justice will be served Ghanaians on the matter at hand.
“It is good that Raymond Acher has asked for the file of Cecilia Dapaah. It is restoring some confidence that we are going to get justice,” he said on Ghana Tonight on TV3 Monday, June 2, 2025.
According to Kissi Agyebeng, the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) has subsequently released the docket to EOCO.
“By a letter dated 14 May 2025, the new leadership of EOCO requested the OSP to forward the docket back to EOCO for a review and commencement of investigation. Under the cover of communication dated 29 May 2025, the OSP forwarded a duplicate docket of the case back to EOCO,” Mr Agyebeng told journalists on June 2.
He said, “It is our considered opinion that the docket serves as a valuable background resource for EOCO to commence its own investigation in respect of aspects of the case the OSP does not have a direct mandate. The OSP would lend its full collaborative support to EOCO in its review and investigation and probable further action.”
Meanwhile, Martin Kpebu has revealed that he is still in court with his partners regarding the advice the then Attorney-General, Godfred Yeboah Dame, gave to EOCO on the matter.
He says they want the court to establish whether there is a law that says one cannot be investigated for lack of “predicate offence” as Godfred Dame advised.
“We are also once again in court. We sued EOCO, A-G on this matter because Godfred Dame had given a legal opinion that EOCO cannot investigate Cecilia Dapaah because there is no predicate offence.
“That is to say that there is no proof what wrong she did before she got those colossal sums of money. There is no such law in Ghana. Our law is that, if we see you with money that is beyond your means, we can investigate you for money laundering,” he stated.
Background
The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) commenced investigation in July 2023 in respect of suspected corruption and corruption-related offences regarding large amounts of money and other valuable items involving Cecilia Abena Dapaah, a former Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, and her associates.
After nearly seven months of extensive investigation by the OSP and a parallel inquiry by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the United States, no direct and immediate evidence of corruption was found in respect of seized funds and frozen bank accounts linked to Ms. Dapaah and her associates – though the investigation identified strong indications of suspected money laundering and structuring, beyond the direct mandate of the OSP.
In January 2024, the OSP referred the case to the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) for commencement of investigation into the identified indications of suspected money laundering and structuring – which are under the direct mandate of EOCO.
In May 2024, EOCO returned the entire docket back to the OSP on the back of their reasoning that since money laundering is not a substantive offence but a collateral offence which must be founded on a predicate offence, EOCO did not have a mandate to commence investigations into the matter since it could not premise its investigation on any predicate offence.
