Ghanaian minister resigns over Phala Phala-like scandal

Ghana's sanitation minister resigned on Saturday over reports staff found and stole stashes of local and foreign money from her home, she said in a letter to the president in which she denied any wrongdoing.

Cecilia Abena Dapaah made headlines on Friday after two former household staff appeared in court accused of stealing cash and personal belongings from the minister and her husband between July and October 2022.

Prosecutors told the court that the accused bought houses and a vehicle with the stolen money and gave some of it to relatives. They have not yet commented on the accusations.

But newspaper reports on the US$1 million, 300,000 euros and millions of local cedis allegedly stolen from Dapaah's home sparked outrage against the minister on social media and calls for her resignation.

Many questioned the origins of such sums of cash in a country where some members of President Nana Akufo-Addo's government have been embroiled in corruption scandals.

"Whereas I can state emphatically that those figures do not represent correctly what my husband and I reported to the police, I am very much aware of the import of such stories around someone in my position," Dapaah said in her resignation letter.

"I do not want this matter to become a preoccupation of government," she said, adding that she would "no doubt" be exonerated.

The presidency accepted Dapaah's resignation and lauded her work without commenting on the allegations.

Dapaah was appointed minister of sanitation and water resources when Akufo-Addo took power in 2017 and retained when he was re-elected in 2021.

The president has vowed to crack down on corruption.