Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Dr Dominic Ayine, has revealed that former Chief Executive Officer of the National Food and Buffer Stock Company, Abdul-Wahab Hannan, allegedly acquired several high-value properties using proceeds from financial crimes.
The disclosure was made during a Government Accountability Series briefing at the Jubilee House. Dr Ayine explained that the revelations form part of an extensive investigation into a GH¢40.5 million money-laundering scheme involving Sawtina Enterprise, a company linked to Hannan and properties owned when he was in charge of the Buffer Stock.
According to the Attorney-General, the government is pursuing all necessary steps to recover assets acquired through criminal proceeds and to ensure accountability in the management of public funds.
Dr. Ayine stated that investigations indicate the former CEO used illicit funds to purchase luxury properties in Accra and Tamale, worth several million dollars and Ghana cedis.
The uncovered assets include:
A five-bedroom house at Chain Homes, valued at $1.625 million
A three-bedroom house at Cantonments, worth $600,000
Plots of land at Airport Development, estimated at $750,000
A 17-bedroom boutique hotel at Gumani, Tamale, valued at $250,000
A four-bedroom bungalow at Dzorwulu, Accra, costing GH¢4,142,451
A 0.32-acre government land purchased for GH¢307,200
Additionally, Dr. Ayine noted: “Bank documents obtained by EOCO will reveal that within the period that the suspects operated this criminal enterprise, Abdul-Wahab and his wife and their entities became the largest depositors at Republic Bank and the branch was at Labone.”
He further added: “Lastly, we have also, we have frozen all the assets of Hannan that I’ve listed, including a GH¢10 million fixed deposit account at Republic Bank Labone branch. That is the liquid assets. They also have a lot of bags. I didn’t want to list them; the wife has over 61 luxury bags… He himself was buying watches, some costing as much as GHs1.5 million Ghana and so on.”
