The National Youth Organiser of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Salam Mustapha, has lashed out at what he describes as “draconian” and “excessive” bail conditions imposed on the former Chief Executive Officer of the National Food Buffer Stock Company (NAFCO), Abdul Hanan Wahab, and his wife.
In a strongly worded social media post, Mr Mustapha expressed outrage at the decision to grant bail to Mr Wahab and his wife on what he considers unfair terms, questioning both the rationale and humanity behind the conditions.
“60 million cedis with two sureties, both to justify, for Hanan; and 30 million cedis with two sureties, one to justify, for his wife. Did they break the vault of the Bank of Ghana?” he wrote.
The NPP youth leader argued that such conditions effectively amount to a backdoor strategy to detain suspects, undermining the very principle of bail and the presumption of innocence.
“Draconian bail conditions as a backdoor strategy to keep people in detention is not right. This defeats the principles of justice and empowers men to be whimsical, as we are witnessing today,” he stated.
Mr Mustapha was particularly incensed by the continued detention of Mr Wahab’s wife, describing the move as cruel, especially given the couple’s young children.
“They have three kids at home — 9, 5 and 3 years old. All infants. Yet you keep the wife in custody too, while the husband is there? The man is the main person; you have him. Must the law punish the infants, too? This is nothing short of wicked,” he lamented.
According to Mr Mustapha, although the couple were granted bail, the conditions were so severe that they could not immediately meet them, a tactic he described as “trite.”
“Bail conditions should not be used to frustrate people. As we work around the bail, EOCO should be minded that this new trend is not right. This tactic is trite. Essentially, you want to say, ‘We have given the bail, the rest is unto you’, when you know deeply well that it’s excessive,” he concluded.
Abdul Hanan Wahab and his wife were arrested earlier last week by the EOCO in connection with an ongoing investigation. Details of the allegations have not been made public, but the case has generated widespread public interest and political commentary.
In a coordinated pre-dawn operation that would make a blockbuster movie blush, EOCO on Wednesday, June 25, 2025, executed an operation in both Tamale and Accra, snaring Alhaji Hannan-Wahab, his wife, and two other high-ranking officials of the state institution.
Sources within EOCO have spilt the beans that the arrests took place concurrently around 11 am, after the elite operation team had painstakingly laid in ambush for a gruelling eight hours.
The two other big fish caught in EOCO’s net were identified as NAFCO’s corporate affairs director and the head of the company’s operations for the three northern regions. It seems no corner of the alleged scheme was left unchecked.
They face a litany of serious allegations of corruption, flagrant use of public office for private gains, rampant tax evasion, sophisticated money laundering, and other egregious offences estimated to be worth several millions of cedis.
EOCO sources have revealed that it isn’t just making arrests; they’re simultaneously tracking down assets that have mysteriously vanished from public coffers.
In a truly cinematic turn of events, Alhaji Hanan Abdul-Wahab, the erstwhile NAFCO CEO, and one of his directors found themselves in EOCO’s clutches in Tamale and Accra.
Insiders reveal these arrests are directly linked to a web of serious allegations involving corruption, brazen misappropriation, and the illicit siphoning of public funds.
It’s alleged that Alhaji Abdul-Wahab, with the cunning of a master puppeteer, orchestrated a grand scheme, reportedly funnelling millions of cedis in public funds through a private company he established and other companies allegedly owned by him, his wife, and his closest cronies, which engaged in self-supply.
This elaborate manoeuvre, allegedly, siphoned off substantial sums that should have been used for the public good.
This latest bust is just another damning chapter in what has become a seemingly unending saga of corruption scandals that continue to plague the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and appointees within President Nana Akufo-Addo’s government.
From the National Signals Bureau’s boss, Kwabena Adu Boahene, to the Sky Train debacle that never took off, the National Service Authority’s “ghost names”, Wuntomi’s controversial Akonta Mining deals, and the still-unfolding SML scandal, the list of alleged corruption cases continues to grow longer.
The arrest of the NAFCO boss, however, marks yet another significant breakthrough in the ongoing fight against what many are now openly calling a deeply rooted culture of corruption.
