Mustapha Hamid Challenges OSP Charges In Court
Former Chief Executive Officer of National Petroleum Authority (NPA), Dr. Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, is seeking a premature end to his trial, by filing an application before a High Court in Accra, asking it to strike out the charges levelled against him by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP).
Dr. Abdul-Hamid and nine (9) others are before the court accused of extorting a total of GH¢291.574 million and $332,407.47 from bulk oil transporters and oil distributors.
While the OSP is yet to file disclosures and witness statements for its witnesses, the accused has caused his lawyers to challenge the charges levelled against him and is subsequently asking the court to strike them out.
The trial judge, Justice Audrey Kocuvie-Tay, yesterday confirmed the filing of the said application, and the OSP has since filed an affidavit in opposition, asking the court to throw it out.
The court could, however, not hear the application because counsel for Dr. Abdul-Hamid told the court that he had not been served with the affidavit in opposition.
The judge therefore, urged the OSP to ensure the defence lawyer is served, while ordering the registrar of the court to produce true copies of the application and serve same on the other accused persons.
The court has also ordered the OSP to ensure its affidavit in opposition is served to all the other accused persons as well.
The court adjourned the case to December 22, 2025, to hear the application. The court added that all the accused persons are expected to be in court that day irrespective of the fact that the application was filed on behalf of only one accused person.
The OSP has charged Dr. Abdul-Hamid and seven (7) individuals and three companies with 54 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 Limited is currently at large.
The accused persons and the three companies all pleaded not guilty to the 54 charges after the court had to retake their pleas following the reassignment of the case to a different court.
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 facts claim a total 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