An Accra High Court has been told how Patience Botwe, a domestic worker, was adamant when it was suggested to her to return monies she allegedly stole from Daniel Osei Kufour, an Architect and his wife, Cecilia Dapaah, former minister for Water Resources and Sanitation.
Patience was hired somewhere in July 2022 and was allegedly caught red handed ransacking the couple’s storeroom on October 6, 2022.
The court, presided over by Justice Marie-Louise Simmons, heard on Friday that Patience allegedly stole monies and personal effects of the couple, amounting to thousands of United States Dollars and Pounds Sterling.
Due to the relationship the couple had with Patience’s family member, Malik Dauda, whom they have known for two decades, the first accused (A1) was asked to return the stolen items.
The stolen items include US$210,000.00, US$200,000.00, £300,000.00, GH¢300,000.00, GH¢50,000.00 and US$95,000.00 worth of jewelleries.
This was contained in the Evidence-in-Chief of prosecution first witness (PW1), Daniel Osei Kufour, an Architect with 53 years standing.
PW1 also stated that he works with the Daniel Osei Kufour, Sohne and Partner Architect and Structure Engineering Consultant Services.
He added that Patience was not a residential house help, but comes twice a week to their house to clean the compound on the instructions of Madam Dapaah.
Narrating how the incident was uncovered, he said on October 6, 2022 at about 7:30 am, he left his Ablemkpe residence in the company of his driver, Raymond Ashi, to attend a family meeting at Akyim Oda, in the Eastern region.
Upon reaching Dome, also in Accra, to pick up his Lawyer, he was advised to abort the trip. Based on the advice, PW1 decided to return home to go and prepare and leave for work.
The witness, on reaching the house, realised that the corridor lights that were switched off before leaving the house were on, amidst unusual noise coming from his bedroom.
Immediately, the witness became alarmed and suspected it would be a work of an intruder.
PW1 also realised that the kitchen door was also opened, which he entered to check, but no one was found.
He then proceeded to the bedroom and saw that the door had been opened with a strange key, which had been left in the keyhole, but he did not find anyone in the master bedroom.
He also became aware that the storeroom (our third bedroom used for storage) was opened, stating “Before entering the storeroom, I realised that the storeroom was opened with the original key, which had always been safely kept in the master bedroom. I entered the storeroom and there I saw the 1st accused person (Patience) hiding behind the door.”
When asked about what she was doing in the room, A1 could not offer any answer. After being marched out of the storeroom, Patience escaped, upon reaching the corridor, and went to hide in the toilet of the Boys Quarters.
With the help of PW1 driver, Patience was forced out of her hideout and with the assistance of the policeman on duty in the house, she was handed over to the Tesano Police station.
It was on his return from the police that he noticed that the storeroom had been ransacked.
Following this observation, Madam Cecilia found out that some of their valuables, as well as huge sums of money, had been stolen from the storeroom.
The items claimed to have been stolen include; an amount of US$210,000.00 belonging to Madam Cecilia’s deceased brother, Nana Akwasi Essan II, alias Charles Dapaah and US$200,000 belonging to Dorcas Wiredua, PW1’s niece and a client.
PW1’s personal money of £300,000.00 as well as GH¢300,000 funeral contribution by wife’s siblings towards burial of their mother were stolen. It was also discovered that Madam Cecilia Dapaah’s GH¢50,000.00 and jewelleries valued $95,000 that she had acquired over a period of 35 years were all missing.
“After my wife and I noticed our belongings and monies were missing, we tried to get the 1st accused to return the stolen items because of the relationship we have with Malik Dauda, 4th accused person.”
He added that, “however, after sometime, we noticed that 1st Accused was determined not to return the monies.”
“In addition to that, the police had informed us that their investigation had revealed that our monies had been distributed among different persons, including the accused persons herein.”
Patience was initially arraigned, but jumped bail after being granted same.
Somewhere in 2023, PW1 and his wife were informed by the police that Patience and Benjamin Sowah (A3) had been arrested at their hideout in Tamale.
Patience is standing trial with Sarah Agyei, Benjamin Sowah, Malik Dauda, Christiana Achab, Job Pomary and Yahaya Sumaila.
The court has given May 15, 2024 for counsel of the accused persons to cross examine the witness.
