Dr. Mustapha Abdul-Hamid
The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) has opposed an application seeking to strike out the charges against the former Chief Executive Officer of National Petroleum Authority (NPA), Dr. Mustapha Abdul-Hamid and seven (7) others accused of extortion.
Dr. Abdul-Hamid and seven 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.
Lawyers for Jacob Kwamina Amuah, a former Coordinator of Unified Pertroleum Pricing Fund (UPPF) and Managing Director of Propnest Limited, has filed an application challenging the charge sheet which initiated the trial before the court.
Although the application was served on the OSP, Kissi Agyebeng, the Special Prosecutor told the court that his outfit was unable to serve the response on the applicant’s lawyer despite several attempts to do so.
The court, presided over by Justice Francis Achibonga, therefore directed Mr. Agyebeng to serve the process on a member of the accused person’s legal team who held brief for the substantive lawyer, and same was done.
The court subsequently adjourned the case to September 2, 2026, to take arguments on the merit of the application.
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.
However, during the pendency of the case, Albert Ankrah and Isaac Mensah secured a deal with the Office of the Special Prosecutor to testify as prosecution witnesses against the other accused persons.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak