Minister for Sanitation and Water Resource Ms Cecilia Abena Dapaah has resigned following a story of her involvement in a criminal case instituted at the Circuit Court against five accused persons.
The accused persons including two house helps are standing trial for allegedly stealing $1 million, €300,000 and sums of cedis from Ms Cecilia Dapaah’s home at Abelemkpe, a suburb of Accra.
In her letter of resignation to President Nana Akufo-Addo, Ms Cecilia Dapaah indicated that her decision to resign from office was motivated by the fact that she did not want her personal issues to become “a hindrance on the work of government.”
She also pledged to cooperate fully with all state agencies who may seek to engage her in any investigations.
“Since yesterday, Friday, July 21, 2023, social and traditional media have been full of stories about a court case involving a theft that took place last year in the home I live with my husband and daughter. The stories sought to suggest that I own various huge sums of foreign currencies and millions of Ghana cedis which have been stolen from my home.
“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. I am resigning therefore because I do not want this matter to become a preoccupation of government and a hindrance to the work of government at such a crucial time.
“I intend to cooperate fully with all state agencies to enable them fully establish the facts. I have no doubt whatsoever that at the end of the processes, it will be fully established that I have conducted myself with integrity during my period in public service and I will be fully exonerated from all the allegations that have filled the public domain in the past 24 hours.
“I thank you my dear, Mr President, for the honour done me in giving me the opportunity to serve our beautiful nation Ghana,” Ms Cecilia Dapaah added in her letter of resignation.
Ms Dapaah was first appointed as Minister for Aviation by President Akufo-Addo in January 2017.
She was later reshuffled to the Sanitation and Water Resources ministry reshuffle and reappointed to the same portfolio when President Akufo-Addo began his second term in office in 2021.
Akufo-Addo accepts resignation
Meanwhile, President Akufo-Addo has accepted the resignation of Ms Cecilia Dapaah.
“I have received your letter, dated Saturday, 22nd July 2023, resigning from office as Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources and as a member of the Government. It is with considerable regret that I accept your resignation, and I applaud your loyalty to the image and standing of the Government.
“The work you undertook during your period in Government was excellent and productive, and I thank you for your wholehearted contribution and devotion to the progress of the Government and the Nation.
“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”, President Akufo-Addo replied Ms Cecilia Dapaah in letter issued on Saturday.
The Director of Communications at the Jubilee House, Eugene Arhin in a Facebook comment indicated that President Akufo-Addo will soon appoint a new Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources.
