Mustapha Hamid, 9 others charged for extorting GH¢280m from oil companies
The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) has dragged the former Chief Executive of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), Dr Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, to court for allegedly conspiring with another official and eight others to extort GH¢280.51 million from bulk oil transporters and oil marketing companies (OMCs).
According to charges filed at the Criminal Division of the High Court in Accra yesterday, the OSP has accused Dr Abdul-Hamid, who was also the Chairman of the Unified Petroleum Pricing Management Committee under the NPA, of using his position to conspire with Jacob Kwamina Amuah, the coordinator of the fund, to extort the GH¢280.51 million from the OMCs.
Charges
The 10 accused persons, including two companies, have been slapped with 25 counts of offences ranging from conspiracy to extort money by a public officer, extortion by public officer, using public office for profit gain, conspiracy to launder money and a substantive count of money laundering.
They are expected to be arraigned for their respective pleas to be taken on the charges filed against them at a later date.
Among the charges, the OSP said between 2022 and December 2024, Dr Abdul-Hamid, Amuah and a staff member of the audit department of the NPA, Wendy Newman, set up a scheme to extort GH¢280.51 million from bulk oil transporters and OMCs.
The scheme, according to the OSP, was contrived by Dr Abdul-Hamid, who allegedly sold the idea of the criminal adventure to Amuah, who also recruited Newman as the primary conduit for receiving the proceeds of the alleged crime.
Amuah is alleged to have transferred GH¢24 million to Abdul-Hamid between January 2024 to December 2024 – all alleged to be proceeds of what the OSP described as a criminal extortion scheme.
Out of the GH¢280.51 million received by Dr Abdul-Hamid, Amuah and Newman, the OSP alleged that GH¢227.23 million was paid through Newman, who allegedly distributed it on the instruction of Amuah.
In the dock
In the dock with them are two directors of real estate company Propnest Limited, Albert Ankrah and Isaac Mensah, and the company’s Chief Executive Officer, Bright Bediako-Mensah, who have been accused of helping the three to launder money.
A Director of another company, Kel Logistics Limited, Kwaku Aboagye Acquah, and the firm itself, are also in the dock on charges of conspiring with the three to launder money.
Meanwhile, Osei Tutu Adjei, the Director of Kings Logistics Limited, is currently on the run, but his company has been joined in the criminal action.
Further particulars
According to the OSP, investigations revealed that Ankrah, Mensah, Bediako-Mensah and Acquah as well as Adjei, with the complicity of Amuah and Newman, established and ran the three companies with which they proceeded to unlawfully launder the proceeds of the alleged criminal adventure of the top three accused persons through various transfers for the acquisition of movable and immovable property.
That was for the purpose of concealing or disguising the illicit origin of the proceeds of the criminal enterprise and to evade the legal consequences of the unlawful activity, the charges averred.
“Amuah and Newman transferred various sums of money directly to the companies and funded the purchase and construction of houses, the purchase of trucks for oil distribution business, and the construction of fuel filling stations,” the OSP stated in the charge sheet.
