Mustapha Hamid
A High Court in Accra has maintained the GH¢2 million each bail granted to former Chief Executive Officer of National Petroleum Authority (NPA), Dr. Mustapha Abdul-Hamid and nine (9) others accused of extorting a total of GH¢291.574 million and $332,407.47 from bulk oil transporters and oil distributors.
This was after defence counsels were able to convince the court that despite the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) increasing the initial charges from 25 to 54, there is no significant change in the total amount of money allegedly extorted by the accused persons — about GH¢11 million difference.
The OSP had initially charged the ten – seven (7) individuals and three companies with 25 counts of charges including extortion by a public officer, conspiracy to commit money laundering and money laundering.
The individuals are Jacob Kwamina Amuah, Coordinator of the Unified Petroleum Pricing Fund (UPPF) at NPA; Wendy Newman, a staff of NPA; Albert Ankrah, Isaac Mensah, all Directors of Kel Logistics Limited; Bright Bediako-Mensah, a Director of Kel Logistics Limited and Kings Energy Limited as well as Kwaku Aboagye Acquaah, Director of Kings Energy Limited.
The three companies charged by the OSP are Propnest Limited, Kel Logistics Limited and Kings Energy Limited, while a suspect identified as Osei Tutu Adjei, a Director of Kel Logistics Ltd. is currently at large.
The accused persons and the three companies all pleaded not guilty to the 54 charges yesterday after the court had to retake their pleas following the reassignment of the case to a different court.
Joseph Dindiok Kpemka, counsel for Dr. Abdul-Hamid, prayed the court to retain the accused on the same bail terms granted by the previous court in July this year, indicating that all the accused have complied with the bail terms to the letter.
“More importantly, we have always attended to the court and the passports of the accused persons are with the registrar. They have been regularly reporting to the Office of the Special Prosecutor as directed by the court,” he added.
Other defence lawyers associated themselves with him, while some added that the essence of the grant of bail is to ensure that the accused person will appear for the trial and that the accused have demonstrated that they are not a flight risk and are ready to avail themselves for the trial.
“We are humbly asking the court to admit the accused persons to bail. They have already submitted sureties whose properties have been verified by the court. We only pray that this court takes cognisance of those conditions and grant the accused bail,” Israel Arthur, counsel for Jacob Kwamina Amuah added.
The trial judge, Justice Audrey Kocuvie-Tay, after listening to the lawyers, retained the GH¢2 million each with three sureties each to be justified bail granted Dr. Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, Jacob Kwamina Amuah, and Wendy Newman.
One surety must be a public servant earning a net salary of GH¢5,000 a month and must provide landed property in Accra.
The court, however, ordered the accused persons to report to the registrar of the court every first and last Tuesday of the month until the final determination of the court instead of the OSP.
Albert Ankrah, Isaac Mensah, Bright Bediako-Mensah, and Kwaku Aboagye Acquaah were also retained on the GH¢2 million each with two sureties, one of whom must be justified with a landed property.
One surety must be a public officer earning not less than GH¢3,000 and must submit a valid ID card to the court’s registry.
In addition, all the accused persons are to deposit their passports at the court’s registry and must report to the court registry every first and last Tuesday of every month instead of the OSP.
Allegations
The OSP says the charges stem from investigations initiated by it in late 2024 into alleged unlawful conduct involving the diversion of public funds and collusion with oil marketing and bulk distribution companies.
The summary of facts indicate that investigations by the OSP show that between 2022 and December 2024, Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, Jacob Kwamina Amuah and Wendy Newman under the colour of their office as officers of NPA, set up an extortionate scheme by which they unlawfully obtained GH¢291,574,087.19 and $332,407.47 from bulk oil transporters and oil marketing companies, which they knew they were not lawfully authorised to obtain.
It says the scheme was contrived by Abdul-Hamid, who sold the idea of the alleged criminal adventure to Amuah, who also recruited Newman as the primary conduit for receiving the proceeds of the crime.
The fact claims a total of GH¢24 million was handed directly by Amuah to Abdul-Hamid between January 2024 and December 2024 – “being proceeds of the criminal extortion scheme.”
BY Gibril Abdul Razak