Former GIHOC Boss Spends Night in Cuffs Over Multiple Scandal
By Gifty Boateng
In a dramatic twist that has sent shockwaves through Ghana’s political establishment, the Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO) has arrested Maxwell Kofi Jumah – a man whose child is married to the child of former President Nana Akufo-Addo.
Yes, the in-law of the ex-president spent Tuesday night behind bars at EOCO’s Accra headquarters.
Jumah, 75, a former MP for Asorkwa and once the powerful Managing Director of GIHOC Distilleries, had been playing hide-and-seek with state investigators for over a week. But on April 28, the long arm of the law finally caught up with him.
This arrest did not come out of nowhere. Just days earlier, on April 14, state security operatives stormed his Kumasi residence in the Ashanti Region.
They came with papers a search authorization and turned the place inside out. The raid was confirmed by the NPP’s Ashanti Regional Communications Director, Paul Yandoh.
Now, Jumah is in the custody of the Raymond Archer-led EOCO, and the whispers from security sources are loud: this is about multiple, serious financial improprieties.
At the heart of the matter? The historic Aboso Glass Factory in Tarkwa, Western Region the same factory built by Dr. Kwame Nkrumah in 1966. Once a giant employing 500 workers, producing 18 million bottles and millions of square feet of glass annually.
Suspicions are swirling that Jumah’s arrest is linked to an alleged demining organized crime scheme connected to the factory. Sources say the case involves attempts to strip the factory for parts or worse.
In November 2024 those final days of his stewardship Jumah dismissed reports that Aboso Glass was sold for scrap at GH¢8 million. He called it a “joke.”
“I just laughed it off,” he told Citi Business News. “If people are that gullible, let them take it. We are going to have a huge factory there.”
But residents and chiefs of Aboso had a different story. They fought tooth and nail against moving the factory to Linkin Birds Company as scrap. Jumah claimed the moves were at the request of new investors.
The former president’s in-law remains in EOCO custody. The office is keeping details close to the chest, but one thing is clear: this is no ordinary arrest.
With a new government in place, the hunt for alleged state capture and asset stripping under the old regime appears to be accelerating. And this time, the net has caught someone very close to the former First Family.