Former Chief Executive of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, and nine others have pleaded not guilty to 54 counts of charges.
The 10 accused persons, including three companies, have been charged with 54 criminal counts by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP).
In a packed court session on Monday, December 9, 2025, before Justice Audrey Kocuvie-Tay, all of them pleaded not guilty to their respective charges.
Mustapha Abdul-Hamid and the other accused persons are alleged to have misused their positions and engaged in money laundering activities, totaling GH¢291,574,087.19 and US$332,407.47.
The amended charge sheet which has 54 criminal counts against officials of the NPA and several associated companies for alleged large-scale extortion, abuse of public office, and money laundering.
It is the case of the OSP that between December 2022 and December 2024, Dr. Abdul-Hamid, Jacob Kwamina Amuah, Coordinator of the Unified Petroleum Pricing Fund, and Wendy Newman, a staff member of the NPA Audit Department, allegedly used their positions to extort money from bulk oil transporters and oil marketing companies without any lawful authority.
Per the brief facts, OSP’s investigations have revealed that the illicit funds were laundered through three companies, Propnest Limited, Kel Logistics Limited, and Kings Energy Limited, allegedly owned or managed by some of the accused persons.
The funds were reportedly used to purchase and construct houses, acquire trucks for oil distribution, and build fuel stations in an attempt to conceal the proceeds.
Brief Facts
Per the brief facts of the case, the First Accused person was the Chief Executive of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), following his appointment on July 1, 2021. The Second Accused person was the Coordinator of the Unified Petroleum Pricing Fund (UPPF) under NPA.
The investigations revealed that between 2022 and December 2024, the First, Second, and Third Accused persons, under the color of their office as officers of NPA, set up an extortionate scheme by which they unlawfully obtained an amount of GH¢291,574,087.19 and US$332,407.47 from bulk oil transporters and oil marketing companies, which they knew they were not lawfully authorized to obtain.
The scheme was contrived by the First Accused person, who sold the idea of the criminal adventure to the Second Accused person, who also recruited the Third Accused person as the primary conduit for receiving the proceeds of the crime.
A total amount of GH¢24,000,000.00 was handed directly by the Second Accused person to the First Accused person between January 2024 and December 2024, being proceeds of the criminal extortion scheme. Within the same period, the First Accused person also directly received the sum of GH¢230,000.00 from one oil haulage company.
The investigations further revealed that the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Accused persons, together with one Osei Tutu Adjei – Director of the Ninth Accused company (currently at large) – with the complicity of the Second and Third Accused persons, established and ran the Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth Accused companies, by which they proceeded to unlawfully launder the proceeds of the criminal adventure of the First, Second, and Third Accused persons through various transfers for the acquisition of movable and immovable property 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.
source :www.kumasimail.com
