Private legal practitioner Martin Kpebu has hinted that former Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources Cecilia Abena Dapaah should forget about her money with the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) despite a High Court ruling last Thursday.
He said there are a thousand and one legislation that empowers the OSP to keep the money and also continue to freeze her bank accounts.
He made this known while contributing to discussions on the matter on The Keypoints on TV3/3FM on Saturday, September 2.
The Financial Division of the Accra High Court presided over by Justice Edward Twum last Thursday rejected the OSP’s application for a confirmation of the freezing of Madam Abena Dapaah’s bank accounts.
Justice Twum also rejected a seizure order made by the Office.
He said there was no justifiable basis for the seizure of the property as the OSP entered the act wrongly while also having no reasonable grounds to freeze the suspect’s bank accounts.
It said the action by the OSP was borne out of speculation and reaction to public sentiments, thus undertaking poor investigations subsequently.
The Office was, therefore, ordered to release the property and accounts within seven days.
But Mr Kpebu said the judge was wrong in holding the period of return of the monies against the OSP.
“I can give you a thousand and one examples where you see the law plain like this, you can read it, they say file your defence within 14 days, yet if you don’t file, they will take cost against you but it will be accepted.
“So, what the judge was supposed to have done was that he shouldn’t have held the seven days against the OSP,” he stressed.
He underscored how courts do not want their orders to be disobeyed, therefore always giving orders and rulings that are easily enforceable.
“There is one cardinal rule that the courts use: You don’t make orders that cannot be enforced. The courts don’t like orders that cannot be enforce at all,” he noted, stressing that the OSP can go around this order given by Justice Twum.
“When the OSP takes your currency and you can’t explain, you forfeit it.
“So, there are so many tools available to the OSP that they can use and so Madam Dapaah will not get this money, so the judge should have been cognizant of that.”
The OSP is currently keeping $590,000 and GH¢2.73 million found in a search at the Abelemkpe residence of Madam Abena Dapaah.