FILE PHOTO: Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo addresses the press during the visit of U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris as she visits Ghana, Tanzania and Zambia, in Accra, Ghana, March 27, 2023. REUTERS/Francis Kokoroko/File Photo
ACCRA (AP) — Ghana’s sanitation minister resigned Saturday over reports that staff found and stole caches of local and foreign money from her home, she said in a letter to the president denying any wrongdoing.
Cecilia Abena Dapaah made headlines on Friday after two former housekeepers appeared in court accused of stealing cash and personal belongings from the minister and her husband between July and October 2022.
Prosecutors told the court that the defendants bought houses and a vehicle with the stolen money and reported it to their relatives. They have yet to comment on the allegations.
But newspaper reports about the million dollars, 300,000 euros and millions of local cedis allegedly stolen from Dapaah’s home sparked outrage against the minister on social media and calls for her resignation.
Many questioned the origin of such cash sums in a country where some members of President Nana Akufo-Addo’s government have been embroiled in corruption scandals.
“While I can emphatically state that these numbers do not accurately represent what my husband and I reported to the police, I am well aware of the importance of such stories surrounding someone in my position,” Dapaah said in her resignation letter.
“I don’t want this matter to become a government concern,” she said, adding that she would “certainly” be exonerated.
The presidency accepted Dapaah’s resignation and praised his work without commenting on the allegations.
Dapaah was appointed as the minister of sanitation and water resources when Akufo-Addo took power in 2017 and retained it when he was re-elected in 2021.
The president has promised to crack down on corruption.
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