The deputy communication officer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Malik Basintale has shed light on the overwhelming scale of alleged hidden wealth in the ongoing saga involving former Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources, Cecilia Dapaah.

According to him, an average worker in Ghana earning GH¢3,000 would take a century of continuous work to accumulate the reported $1 million that was supposedly 'stolen' by the former minister.

Making an appearance on TV3's New Day, Basintale, said,

“What GH¢160 billion [old currency conversion] means to the ordinary Ghanaian out there, if you are a worker who earns GH¢3,000 in this country, you need to work for about 100 years in other to attain the $1 million alone, that was stolen.

“If you are an ordinary lecturer who takes GH¢ 10,000, you need to work for 100 years in order to attain the dollars and the euros that were stolen.

“If you are a nurse watching, you need to work for 333 years before you can get the $1 million that she had in her house. This is what that number of monies that have been stolen means to you and me, I just wanted everyone to have an appreciation of what we are speaking about,” he said.

He expressed surprise at attempts by some communicators of the government to downplay the severity of the reported theft, by the former minister for sanitation.

“This is a charge sheet that was reported by this woman whose monies had been stolen. And so, I am surprised that you have some communicators attempting to say that the figures were misrepresented and that wasn’t what was actually stolen.

“If that wasn’t what was stolen when the housemaid spent the monies, was she spending cowries, was she spending the air? Was it not monies she stole that she was spending? And so, the cheap defence of this matter must stop and stop today,” the deputy communication officer added.

The saga involving the former minister for Sanitation and Water Resources, Cecilia Dapaah, has captured public attention. On Monday, July 24, 2023, she was invited by the Office of the Special Prosecutor and was put under arrest after news broke that her $1 million, €300,000 and millions of Ghana cedis were ‘stolen’ by her maids.

Subsequently, the former minister was granted bail with a surety.

NW/WA
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