'Bantama Parliament': Cecilia Dapaah's late brother couldn'

Neighbors at Bantama, where he lived and worked, have attested that Nana Akwasi Essan II, the late brother of censured former sanitation minister Cecilia Dapaah, was leading a relatively normal life with his family.

However, about a dozen of the neighbors steadfastly maintain that the late shoe manufacturer could not have saved even US$800,000, much less left the same to his sister, despite having a sizable workshop and roughly 10 employees.

The theft of a million dollars by two former house helpers from the former minister’s Accra home resulted in the rise in popularity of the late chief’s name.

The first person to claim that Ms. Dapaah had told him that one-eighth of the stolen money belonged to her brother, who gave it to their deceased mother, whose custody it was given to her, was journalist Paul Adom-Otchere.

Nearby neighbors of Nana Akwasi Essan’s residence and workshop in Bantama told Kumasi-based Oyerepa TV that the amount being claimed was excessive and that he could not have had such a sum.

Journalist Kwesi Parker-Wilson referred to the events as “Bantama Parliament” and questioned each respondent as to why they believed the late chief could not participate.