There is a fine line between stealing and hoarding. Weighing the current situation in the country where money is not circulating in the system it’s an offense to hoard large amounts of monies in the house. If theft hurts the society, money grubbing hurts the economy as well.
Cecilia Abena Dapaah the former Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources concealment of huge chunk of foreign and local currency in her house as a public servant whose salary payslips betrayed her actions is an evidence of money grubbing.
Such rapacious act amount to corruption, tax evasion, causing financial loss to the state, and exposing the corrupt practices of the government she served. Only God knows the number of her kind are in both successive governments since after Nkrumah’s reign.
The case of her maids could be viewed as theft of tax payers money. Cecilia Abena Dapaah and her maids should have been arrested for investigation at the same time for proper justice to be addressed but was left in the hands of immunity until the voices of the populace called for her investigation. I applaud the OSP for doing his job even though he first delayed. The people have confidence in him for standing his ground against the odds from the enemies of Ghana’s progress.
THE CASE OF STEALING AND THE ACT OF THEFT
With reference to the court charges sheet relating to the accused of theft, Cecilia Abena Dapaah relating to the large funds said to have been stolen I think the maids weren’t fairly treated.
Their human rights should have been observed by also charging the money grubber as well to avoid special treatment.
Stealing and Theft are not the same act therefore needs a proper consideration to determine the case.
STEALING: Stealing is an intent to steal, while Theft act on stealing. The cause of stealing may be as a result of lack of adequacy through economic strives or family pressure or peer pressure.
The said maids are youth who could have been the bread winners of their families. It’s normal and fair that the maids should have been prevented from theft by Cecilia Abena Dapaah.
The latter should have prevented theft in her house by not exposing the hoarded money. If she was careful with the grubbed money her maids wouldn’t be tempted to steal.
Even if an Angel was in the house the spirit of stealing would have tempted him to just take a little out of the huge amount to solve his earthly compounded problems just as the maids did with the intent to help solve their families problems. Since they took money that didn’t belong to them it’s theft.
Cecilia Abena Dapaah should be held culpable of tempting the maids to steal which resulted in theft.
In her report of theft did she state how long the maids worked for her and did she report of any previous theft or intent to steal to the police? If she did, did the security or authorities interrogated her on how she acquired the huge amount concealed in her house? Was she reminded about the foreign currency she hoards affecting the exchange rate in the country or they just gave it a cosmetic look.
Some school of thought opine that there’s no law criminalizing anyone to keep large sum of monies in the house and I see that as half truth, in that if you keep your national currency in your house without protection that’s your problem, but with hard currency to which specific amount is only permitted to leave their country and she hoards millions of dollars in her house gets one worrying. Trying to use our profession to defend Cecilia Abena Dapaah’ unpatriotic gestures only depicts how far corruption is encouraged. It’s glaring that some personalities don’t care about the hardship and adversities the ordinary Ghanaians go through.
THE PRESIDENT’S RESPONSE TO CECILIA ABENA DAPAAH’S RESIGNATION LETTER
An excerpt of the President’s acceptance response: ” I am confident like you, that at the end of the day, your integrity whilst in office will be fully established.” This is an incriminating response; the people are suffering due to hardship, suffering and deprivation yet a public servant is appreciated and honored for money grubbing. The Accra High court eventually ordered the freezed bank account and chunk of money found in her house be returned to her. Meanwhile the maids who were tempted to steal are still in the grips of the law. This is jungle justice and a judicial weak link. No wonder many youth are confined in our prison yards as victims of circumstances for stealing cassava or fowl.
Let’s stop the rich get richer and the poor gets poorer. Politicians should know they are employees and people who gave the mandate are the employers.
Apostle Dr Tom Asiseh
Independent Presidential Aspirant 2024
Ghanaian Diaspora Movement (GDM)
