Cecilia Dapaah

Dapaah was elected as the member of parliament for the Bantama constituency of the Ashanti Region of Ghana for the first time in the 2004 Ghanaian general elections.[5][6] She won on the ticket of the New Patriotic Party.[5][6] Her constituency was a part of the 36 parliamentary seats out of 39 seats won by the New Patriotic Party in that election for the Ashanti Region.[7] The New Patriotic Party won a majority total of 128 parliamentary seats out of 230 seats.[8] She was elected with 41,064 votes out of 49,174 total valid votes cast equivalent to 83.5% of total valid votes cast.[5][6] She was elected over Alhasan Napoh of the National Democratic Congress and Yaw Owusu Boafo of the Convention People's Party.[5][6] These obtained 14.8% and 1.7% respectively of total valid votes cast.[5][6]

In 2008, she won the general elections on the ticket of the New Patriotic Party for the same constituency.[9][10] Her constituency was part of the 34 parliamentary seats out of 39 seats won by the New Patriotic Party in that election for the Ashanti Region.[11] The New Patriotic Party won a minority total of 109 parliamentary seats out of 230 seats.[12] She was elected with 36,708 votes out of 48,476 total valid votes cast equivalent to 75.72% of total valid votes cast.[9][10][4] She was elected over Nana Osei Akoto-Kuffour of the National Democratic Congress, Osei-Tutu Richard of the Convention People's Party, Eunice Owusu-Ansah of the Reformed Patriotic Democrats and Stephen Kwaku Saahene an independent candidate.[9][10] These obtained 14.45%, 5.52%, 0.91% and 3.39% respectively of the total votes cast.[9][10]

On 7 January 2017, President Akuffo-Addo nominated her for the position of Minister of Aviation.[13][14] She was vetted by the Appointments Committee of the Parliament of Ghana on 8 February 2017.[14][15] During her vetting, she testified that she would improve the aviation industry in Ghana, and that her priority was to restart a national carrier by 2019.[14][16][17] She was of the view that the unavailability of the carrier was depriving Ghana of several millions of cedis in revenue.[14] The last national carrier was Ghana International Airlines, which collapsed in 2010.[15] In March 2017, she announced that Ghana was progressing with its desire to become the aviation hub of the West African region.[18]

Dapaah was moved to the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources in 2018.[3] She was made caretaker Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection for a year (2021–2022).[3] She served in her role as Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources before resigning in July 22, 2023, due to an alleged scandal involving the stealing of $1,000,000, €300,000 and Millions in local currency by her house helps from her bedroom.[19][20][21][22]

According to a press statement released by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP), Dapaah was taken into custody on Monday, July 24, 2023, at 11:55 GMT. The arrest was connected to alleged corruption and corruption-related activities involving substantial sums of money and valuable items, which were reportedly stolen from her residence in 2022 by two of her domestic workers.[23][24][25]

One Madam Hannah Fosua, said to be the wife of a former driver of the Minister claimed her husband lost his job working for Ms Dapaah because he drew attention to the behaviour of the accused persons. [26]

Andy Appiah-Kubi, the Member of Parliament for Asante-Akim North suggested on TV3 that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo should have kept his comments about the innocence or otherwise of the Minister to himself.[27]

In September 2023, the Accra High Court ordered the Office of the Special Prosecutor to unfreeze and return the money in her bank accounts.[28] The office obeyed the directive but later froze her bank account again and her investments. The office returned her seized cash amounts.[29]