–Gh50million, $2.5million Mansions, 60 Designer Bags…
-Hannan, Wife and Officials Stuffed Suitcases with Cash while School Children Starved
By Prince Ahenkorah
The Attorney-General’s office has lifted the lid on what officials are calling one of the most brazen state looting schemes in recent memory, implicating the former CEO of the National Food and Buffer Stock Company (NAFCO), Hanan Abdul-Wahab, his wife Faiza Seidu Wuni, and a network of insiders in a GHS 50 million embezzlement scandal.
Dubbed the “Rumble in the Jungle” by the Attorney-General, the case centres on the diversion of public funds earmarked for Ghana’s School Feeding Programme between 2017 and 2024.
While schoolchildren went hungry and suppliers pleaded for payment, senior officials at NAFCO allegedly orchestrated a complex web of shell companies and bank transfers to siphon off millions.
The Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) traced GHS 78 million in payments to Sawtina Enterprise, a firm controlled by regional manager James Atieku-Apawu.
Only GHS 27 million was backed by evidence of actual food deliveries. The remaining GHS 50.8 million was rerouted to companies linked to Abdul-Wahab and Wuni, including Alqarni Enterprise, Fa-Hausa Ventures, and Aludiba Foundation.
Bank records show GHS 23.9 million landed in Alqarni Enterprise, GHS 500,000 in Fa-Hausa Ventures, and GHS 16.1 million was transferred directly to Abdul-Wahab.
Atieku-Apawu reportedly confessed to receiving instructions from the former CEO on how and when to move funds, confirming the scheme’s top-down coordination.
Investigators uncovered a trail of luxury acquisitions funded by the stolen money: a $2.5 million mansion at Airport Residential Area, a $1.6 million home from Chain Homes, a $600,000 property in Cantonments, and a 17-bedroom boutique hotel in Tamale operating under the Villa Monticello brand.
Additional assets include multiple plots of land, a GHS 10 million fixed deposit, dozens of vehicles, and over 60 designer handbags.
All assets have been frozen pending confiscation orders. Abdul-Wahab and Wuni face charges including theft, conspiracy, money laundering, and abuse of public office. The Attorney-General confirmed that charges will be filed at the High Court in Accra on 24 October.
The scandal is part of a broader anti-corruption sweep under the Operation Recover Assets and Loot (ORAL) initiative. Other cases under review include the Skytrain project, the National Service Secretariat’s ghost names scandal now revised to GHS 2.2 billion in losses and the Pwalugu Dam and Sputnik V vaccine procurement.
The Attorney-General reiterated the government’s zero-tolerance stance on corruption, vowing to pursue all offenders “regardless of political or social status.” But with multiple high-profile figures now under scrutiny, the question remains whether Ghana’s anti-graft machinery can withstand the political fallout.