Dr. Mustapha Abdul-Hamid
Former Chief Executive Officer of National Petroleum Authority (NPA), Dr. Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, has withdrawn an application challenging the propriety of the charges levelled against him by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) in relation to the alleged extortion of monies from bulk oil distributors.
The accused had filed the motion last month seeking a premature end to his trial by targeting all the charges levelled against him in the ongoing trail before a High Court in Accra.
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.
The OSP has filed a bulky set of documents as part of documents it intends to rely on to prove the guilt of the accused, who have all denied the charges against them.
Joseph Dindiok Kpemka, counsel for Dr. Abdul-Hamid, told the court yesterday that the accused would like to exercise his right to withdraw the motion asking the court to strike out the charges against him “so as to enable the honourable court proceed with the substantive matter.”
The court, presided over by Justice Audrey Kocuvie-Tay, subsequently struck out the application as withdrawn.
Bail Variation
Meanwhile, the court has varied part of the bail conditions of the accused persons, ordering them to report to the lead investigator at the OSP instead of the Court Registrar.
This followed an application filed by the OSP, with Adelaide Kobiri telling the court, while she moved the motion that, it will enable the investigator track the accused persons at all material times during the case and ensure that they appear before the court to stand trial.
All the accused persons decided not to oppose the application despite their earlier resistance, with some even filing an affidavit in opposition which were all withdrawn yesterday.
The trial judge revised the bail condition and ordered the accused persons to report to the lead investigator on the first and third Tuesdays of the month until trial commences in the matter.
“When trial commences, the accused shall report the first Tuesday of the month since they will also be coming to court for the hearing of this matter,” Justice Kocuvie-Tay stated, while also ordering the investigator to file a return at the end of every month to the court.
The court further placed all the accused on a Stop List at all entry point of immigration.
The court has adjourned the case to February 2, 2026, for case management conference.
The OSP has charged Dr. Abdul-Hamid and seven individuals as well as 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 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.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak