The High Court in Accra suspended the hearing of the case against the former Chief Executive of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), Dr Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, until May 26 to await the outcome of stay of execution filed by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP).
Lawyers for Dr Abdul-Hamid raised an objection as to the capacity of the OSP to conduct the business of Case Management when the case was called yesterday.
Their objection was premised on the recent Accra High Court (General Jurisdiction 10) ruling that the OSP needed express authorisation from the Attorney-General criminal prosecutions.
Based on the objection, the court indicated it would give effect to the High Court’s decision on OSP’s lack of capacity if its application for stay of execution fails.
Dr Abdul-Hamid and seven others, accused of money laundering and conspiring to extort oil marketing companies totaling GH¢280 million have been granted a total of GH¢14 million by the High Court in Accra.
This was after they pleaded not guilty to a total of 25 counts, including extortion by a public officer, contrary to Section 151 of the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29), conspiracy to commit money laundering, contrary to Section 23 of Act 29 and Sections 1 (1), 1 (2), and 4 of the anti-money laundering Act, 2020 (Act 1044), money laundering, contrary to Sections 1 (1), 1 (2), and 4 of Act 1044.
Dr Abdul-Hamid, a former Minister of Information, two other NPA officials; Jacob Kwamina Amuah, Coordinator of the Unified Petroleum Pricing Fund (UPPF), and Wendy Newman, a staff member of the NPA, were granted bail in the sum of GH¢2 million each, with two sureties to be justified.
As part of the bail condition, the court ordered that one of the sureties must be a public servant earning a net salary of at least GH¢5,000, while the other must provide evidence of ownership of landed property.
All three accused have been directed to report to the authorities once every two weeks.
In addition to the NPA officials, five executives of three companies accused of facilitating the alleged money laundering scheme have also been charged.
They include Albert Ankrah, Isaac Mensah, Bright Bediako-Mensah, and Kwaku Aboagye Acquaah.
Each of the accused has been granted bail in the sum of GH¢2 million, with three sureties, one of which must be justified with landed property.
Appearing before Justice Mary Yanzuh, the Special Prosecutor (SP), Mr Kissi Adjabeng, prosecuting, told the court that the accused conspired to extort money from the oil marketing companies.
He said the OSP filed the charges against the accused after thorough investigations and establishing the involvement of the accused in the alleged criminal schemes beyond reasonable doubt.
BY MALIK SULLEMANA
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