Newly obtained documents have revealed that the case involving the alleged theft of cash from Cecilia Dapaah's residence was initially filed at a Juvenile Court, raising questions about why the police failed to include this information in the documents handed over to the Attorney General.
Despite the documentation outlining a list of missing items, including an unspecified amount of money, the suspect was initially charged with lesser offenses such as unlawful entry and entering premises for unlawful purposes.
This revelation comes in the wake of the Attorney General's legal advice pointing out the absence of information on the initial arrest of any suspects in 2022 in his review of the police docket.
The new documents according to a JoyNews report, however, show that the police did investigate the matter in 2022 and multiple charges were filed both at the Juvenile Court and Circuit Court.
According to the documents, on October 4, 2022, Cecilia Dapaah warned one of her domestic staff members not to enter certain rooms in the house during her work. However, on October 6, 2022, the staff member managed to enter a room and was caught by Dapaah's husband, Daniel Kuffuor. He reported the incident to the Tesano Police Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit and lodged a complaint.
When Dapaah returned on October 10, she conducted an analysis to identify the missing items from her room, including Kente cloth, women's clothing, an unspecified amount of money, and jewelry.
The police then took a statement from the juvenile suspect, and charges were filed accordingly. The suspect was later taken to the Circuit Court on October 26, 2022. However, due to discrepancies in her age determination, she was discharged and subsequently re-arrested with fresh charges filed at the Juvenile Court.
Interestingly, the documents obtained did not mention the alleged theft of 1 million dollars, suits, and other amounts in Ghana cedis, as detailed in court documents filed against the same suspect and four others in July 2023, pertaining to the same theft that occurred in October 2022.
The situation raises concerns about why the police did not include the case's full details, including charges related to theft, and why the case was not disclosed to the Attorney General's office. Deputy Attorney General Alfred Tuah Yeboah expressed surprise at the omission and indicated that his office will seek answers from the police.
“The docket that was submitted to us had nothing about a case pending in any juvenile court. The only hint that we had was about the report at the Tesano Police Station. And so in terms of any prosecution going on at the Juvenile or Circuit Court (previously) we are not aware,” he stated on JoyNews' News File programme.
GA/SARA
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