Unable to meet GH¢55 Million Bail
EOCO Tight-lipped on charges
By Lawrence Odoom
Maxwell Kofi Jumah, 75, ex‑chief of GIHOC Distilleries and an in‑law of former President Nana Akufo‑Addo, is now in the Intensive Care Unit of Korle Bu Teaching Hospital. His crime? Unknown.
The public has not been told. What is known: the Economic and Organised Crime Office granted him police enquiry bail on April 29 at GH¢55 million (roughly $3.7 million at current exchange rates) and he has been unable to satisfy those conditions from a hospital bed.
The Numbers
· GH¢55 million: One of the largest bail sums ever imposed by EOCO.
· 75: Jumah’s age. He also served as MP for Asokwa.
· 500: Former workers at the Aboso Glass Factory, a Nkrumah‑era asset now at the center of speculation.
· GH¢8 million: The scrap‑sale figure Jumah publicly dismissed as a “joke” in November 2024.
The agency has disclosed no specific allegations. It raided Jumah’s Kumasi residence on April 14, arrested him on April 28, and granted bail the following day.
His spokesman, NPP Ashanti Regional Communications Director Paul Yandoh, confirmed Monday that Jumah’s “deteriorating medical condition” now requiring ICU care “has slowed down attempts to fulfil the bail requirements.”
EOCO, led by Raymond Archer, has been trailing Jumah for more than a year. The investigation reportedly touches on public financial management violations during his GIHOC tenure.
But the most persistent thread leads to the Aboso Glass Factory, a historic state‑owned bottle manufacturer founded in 1966.
In November 2024, Jumah went on the record to deny that GIHOC had sold Aboso for scrap at GH¢8 million. “It’s a joke,” he told Citi Business News. “I just laughed it off.” He insisted the plant would be revitalized by 2025.
Local chiefs and residents of Aboso (Prestea Huni Valley municipality) had already resisted attempts to dismantle the factory and sell it to Linkin Birds Company as scrap. Jumah claimed the moves were at the request of new investors.
Now, EOCO is examining whether those transactions and broader alleged financial improprieties, including demining‑linked organised crime justify the record bail.
A 75‑year‑old former MP and state executive lies in intensive care, legally free on bail but unable to meet its terms.
EOCO has not explained why the sum is so high, what the specific charges are, or how a hospitalized elderly man is expected to comply. Behind the scenes, top NPP goons are frantically mobilizing to assist him in raising the requisite documentations to satisfy the bail condition.
interestingly, the former President, AKUFO Addo who is his in-law and the former first family are shying away from helping him.
Jumah’s family has not commented. EOCO has not issued an update. The factory’s fate remains unresolved. And the bail clock keeps running.
More to come….