Ghana’s sanitation minister, Cecilia Abena Dapaah, has resigned following reports that staff discovered and seized stashes of local and foreign currency from her residence.
Dapaah made headlines after two former home staff were charged with stealing cash and personal goods from the minister and her spouse between July and October 2022.
Prosecutors informed the court that the accused used stolen money to buy houses and a vehicle, as well as give some of it to relatives. They have yet to respond to the allegations.
However, newspaper stories about the $1 million, $300,000 euros, and millions of local cedis reportedly stolen from Dapaah’s residence provoked social media outrage and called for her resignation.
Many questioned the source of such large quantities of money in a country where some members of President Nana Akufo-Addo’s administration have been implicated in corruption scandals.
“Whereas I can state emphatically that those figures do not represent correctly what my husband and I reported to the police, I am very much aware of the import of such stories around someone in my position,” Dapaah said in her resignation letter to the president in which she denied any wrongdoing.
“I do not want this matter to become a preoccupation of government,” she said, adding that she would “no doubt” be exonerated.
Dapaah’s resignation was accepted, and the presidency praised her performance without commenting on the claims.
She was named minister of sanitation and water resources by Akufo-Addo when he took office in 2017 and was re-elected in 2021.
The president has committed to combat corruption.
