Attorney General Dr Dominic Ayine has announced that former Chief Executive Officer of the National Food and Buffer Stock Company Hanan Abdul-Wahab and his wife Faiza Seidu Wuni will be charged over the theft of GH¢78 million from the company.
The charges will be filed on Friday October 24, 2025.
Dr Ayine disclosed this at a press briefing in Accra on Wednesday.
“On account of the foregoing, we have decided to charge Mr. Hanan Abdul-Wahab and his wife, Faiza Seidu Wuni with stealing, conspiracy to steal, willfully causing financial loss to the state, using public office for profit, obtaining public property by false statements and money laundering,” he said.
The Attorney General said investigations established that Hanan Abdul-Wahab operated an elaborate criminal enterprise from 2018 to 2024 while serving as CEO of Buffer Stock.
“Within the period between 2017 and 2024, Hanan Abdul-Wahab, in concert with Richard Sam-Asante and Bismark Owusu Boakye, orchestrated the transfer of GH¢78,269,084.04 from the bank accounts of Buffer Stock Company to a private company linked to Hanan Abdul-Wahab, his wife and staff of buffer stock Company at Republic Bank and ECOBANK,” he stated.
He noted that evidence shows the funds were instantly retransferred to companies owned by Hanan Abdul-Wahab himself and companies associated with Hanan and his wife.
Dr Ayine said seven entities linked to Mr. Hanan Abdul-Wahab and his wife were used as vehicles to receive and to launder the proceeds of crime from Buffer Stock.
“The entities in question are Alqarni Enterprise, Aludiba Enterprise, Energy Partners Limited, Fa-Hausa Ventures, Fa-Hausa Company Limited, Aludiba Foundation and Sawtina Enterprise owned by a third party connected to the couple,” he said.
He added that the money laundering took the form of property acquisitions across the country including real estate and luxury goods using the same entities.
The Attorney General revealed that bank documents obtained by EOCO show that within the period the suspects operated the criminal enterprise Mr. Hanan Abdul-Wahab, his wife and their entities became the largest depositors of Republic Bank.
He said investigations established that in 2018 Sawtina Enterprise an entity owned by James Atieku-Apawu applied to become a licensed supplier to the Buffer Stock Company and the application was approved by his boss Hanan Abdul-Wahab.
“Documentary evidence from bank accounts of Buffer Stock revealed that between September 2018 and June 2024 Buffer Stock transferred a total of GH¢78,269,082.04 to Sawtina Enterprise’s bank accounts at Ecobank and Republic Bank respectively. The payments were supposedly to pay for food supplies made by Sawtina Enterprise to schools under the School Feeding Program,” he stated.
Dr Ayine noted that verified records including waybills and store receipt vouchers from Buffer Stock indicated that only GH¢27,389,872.00 out of payments to Sawtina Enterprise were backed by supplies.
“There is no evidence that the remaining GH¢50,879,210.04 paid to the enterprise was backed by food supplies or any service rendered to Buffer Stock,” he said.
He added that a review of Sawtina Enterprise’s bank account revealed that 98 percent of the GH¢78,269,082.04 were instantly retransferred to Alqarni Enterprise, Fa-Hausa Ventures and other entities owned and controlled by or affiliated to Hanan Abdul-Wahab and Faiza Seidu Wuni.
The Attorney General said under interrogation Mr. Atieku-Apawu stated that although some of the funds received were for genuine supplies in most instances no supplies were made but he noticed that Buffer Stock kept making payments to his company.
“He also admitted that other third-party companies which our investigations have established to be Licensed Buying Companies or suppliers to Buffer Stock also made several payments into Sawtina’s account. He said he neither knew the promoters of these companies nor did his company have any business dealings with them,” he stated.
Dr Ayine noted that Mr. Atieku-Apawu had no explanation as to why the millions were transferred into his company’s bank account but observed that those payments were made on the instruction of his then boss Hanan Abdul-Wahab.
“He further explained that whenever such payments were deposited into Sawtina’s account, he was prompted by Hanan to expect the transfer and was later instructed on where to move or retransfer the funds. In effect, Sawtina became a conduit for Hanan Abdul-Wahab and his wife to steal Buffer Stock funds without easy detection,” he said.
The Attorney General announced that the couple purchased a number of high-end real estate properties from their ill-gotten wealth.
He said the properties include a five-bedroom house bought from Chain Homes Limited at a cost of $1.625 million, a three-bedroom house at Cantonments from Golden Coast Developer at a cost of $600,000 and plots at Finali’s Airport development site for $750,000.
“Subsequently, in July 2021, Faiza Seidu Wuni signed a contract with a construction company, Mendanha and Sousa Construction Ltd at a cost of $691,650.00 to construct the shell and core of the building. The building sitting on three plots is now estimated to be valued at about $2.5 million,” he stated.
Dr Ayine said the couple also purchased 0.32-acre government land from Anthony Duke Essien a known government land sales agent named in both the demolition of the Nigerian High Commission and the sale and demolition of the Bulgarian Consulate.
“Duke Essien used his sister Antoinette Tsiboe Darko, a staff of Danquah Institute as a front, to purchase from the Ministry of Lands and the Land Commission at a price of GH¢307,200. Duke Essien then instantly sold the land to Hanan Abdul-Wahab and received about GH¢2,567,000.00,” he said.
He noted that other properties acquired by the couple include a 17-bedroom boutique hotel at Gumani in Tamale, a four-bedroom bungalow situated at Dworwulu valued at GH¢4,142,451.00 and a three storey building at Estate Junction Tamale.
The Attorney General said all assets have been frozen and steps will be taken to have them confiscated to the state in the course of the criminal proceedings.
“In terms of liquid assets, we have frozen a fixed deposit account belonging to Mr. Hanan containing GH¢10 million with Republic Bank, Labone Branch, Accra. Additionally we have also frozen several vehicles and over 61 luxury handbags,” he stated.
Dr Ayine said he called the criminal enterprise operated by Mr. Abdul-Wahab and his collaborators at the Buffer Stock the Rumble in the Jungle not only because of the huge amount of money at stake but because while food suppliers were wailing due to failure to pay them and while school kids were being denied nutrition under the School Feeding Programme Mr. Abdul-Wahab and his collaborators were busy looting funds meant for the programme.
Richard Aniagyei, ISD
