Mustapha Abdul-Hamid’s lawyers dare Special Prosecutor

Lawyers for former National Petroleum Authority (NPA) Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, have challenged the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) to prove extortion and corruption-related charges levelled against their client in court.

Speaking on Citi Eyewitness News on Friday, July 18, counsel for Dr. Abdul-Hamid and former Deputy Attorney General, Joseph Kpemka, stated that the charges were baseless and would not hold in court.

“We have received the charge sheet. They have charged my client with extortion and for using his official office for private gains. We are going to appear in court,” he said.

He insisted that Dr. Abdul-Hamid maintains his innocence.

“As we let the statement out yesterday, we denied each and every charge without any doubt at all, and we are seeking to establish that indeed the prosecution, in our opinion, candidly will not be able to establish these charges against us in the course of the trial,” he added.

Mr. Kpemka further dismissed the charges as unfounded and misleading.

“The charges are crooked. It has absolutely nothing to do with money belonging to the Government of Ghana, which was the initial allegation. He never extorted any money from any person, he never used his office to extort any money whatsoever, and we are challenging them to prove it in court,” he emphasized.

The comments follow the OSP’s announcement on Thursday, July 17, that it had charged Dr. Abdul-Hamid and six other individuals, along with three companies, in connection with a GHS280 million extortion and money laundering scheme allegedly perpetrated at the NPA.

However, in a strongly worded response, Dr. Abdul-Hamid’s lawyers denied the claims and clarified that he has not been personally served with any charge sheet.

The legal team also recounted a shift in allegations since February 2025, when the OSP initially accused the former NPA CEO of embezzling GHS1.3 billion from the Unified Petroleum Pricing Fund (UPPF). They revealed that Dr. Abdul-Hamid formally demanded a retraction from the OSP on February 17, a request the Special Prosecutor’s office never granted.

Although he later honoured an invitation from the OSP on February 25 over supposed procurement breaches and UPPF mismanagement, his lawyers say the narrative has since changed.

“The OSP has now moved from embezzlement and procurement infractions to extortion and money laundering, and the alleged amount has shrunk from GHS1.3 billion to GHS280 million,” the lawyers said in their Thursday statement.

The OSP’s current claim is that Dr. Abdul-Hamid personally benefited GHS24 million from the amount allegedly extorted from oil marketing companies and petroleum transporters a claim his legal team continues to reject outright.

However Dr. Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, and six others are expected to appear before Criminal Division 3 of the High Court on Wednesday, July 23, 2025, to answer to corruption-related allegations brought against them by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP).