Ghana’s Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Dr. Dominic Akuritinga Ayine, has disclosed startling details of what he described as a “criminal enterprise” involving the former Chief Executive Officer of the National Food and Buffer Stock Company Limited (NAFCO), Mr. Hanan Abdul Wahab, his wife, and other officials of the company.
The elaborate corruption network, which Dr. Ayine has codenamed the “Rumble in the Jungle,” allegedly drained tens of millions of Ghana cedis from the Buffer Stock Company between 2017 and 2024.
Addressing the media in Accra, Dr. Ayine explained that EOCO’s investigation, which began with the arrest of suspects Kwabena Adu Boahen and his wife in March 2020, uncovered an even more extensive web of corruption tied to Mr. Abdul Wahab.
“As of March 2020, the Economic and Organized Crime Office had gathered credible intelligence regarding a criminal enterprise that had been operated by the former Chief Executive Officer of the National Food and Buffer Stock Company Limited, Mr. Hanan Abdul Wahab”.
Ghana’s Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Dr. Dominic Akuritinga Ayine
According to Dr. Ayine, the initial estimate of the amount of money siphoned off by Mr. Abdul Wahab and his collaborators stood at GHS 58 million, which was “far in excess of the GHS 49 million suspected to have been stolen by Mr. Adu Boahen and his co-accused persons.”
He said the operation was dubbed the “Rumble in the Jungle” not only because of the magnitude of the money involved, but also because of the immoral contrast it revealed.
Dr Ayine decried that while food suppliers were wailing and gnashing their teeth due to failure to pay them for supplies to Buffer Stock, and while school kids were being denied nutrition under the school feeding program for lack of funds, Mr. Abdul Wahab and his collaborators were “busy lawlessly looting funds” meant for the program.
sophisticated criminal network
Dr. Ayine said EOCO’s painstaking investigations revealed that the former Buffer Stock boss and his associates had operated a sophisticated criminal network that diverted public funds under the guise of payments to suppliers.
He disclosed that on June 25, 2025, EOCO conducted a coordinated operation that led to the arrest of Mr. Abdul Wahab, his wife Faiza Seidu, northern sector manager of Buffer Stock James Atiaku (based in Tamale), and Emmanuel Atta, the company’s head of corporate affairs.
According to the Attorney-General, EOCO’s findings showed that between 2017 and 2024, Mr. Abdul Wahab, while serving as CEO, conspired with his wife and several key officials, including Richard Sam, Head of Finance, and Bismarck Owusu Boakye of the Finance Department, to “create an elaborate criminal enterprise that was used to steal and launder public funds from the Buffer Stock Company.”
Dr. Ayine revealed that the group orchestrated the transfer of a total of GHS 78,269,084.40 from the company’s accounts into private accounts at Republic Bank and Ecobank belonging to Mr. Abdul Wahab, his wife, and other staff of Buffer Stock.
“Evidence shows that the funds were instantly re-transferred to companies owned by Abdul Wahab himself and entities owned and associated with him and his wife”.
Ghana’s Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Dr. Dominic Akuritinga Ayine
The investigations further uncovered that between December 2017 and May 2019, Mr. Abdul Wahab transferred GHS 5,495,780.36 from Buffer Stock’s accounts into two bank accounts belonging to Al Udeba Enterprise, one of his own companies.
“Al Udeba Enterprise is not a registered supplier of Buffer Stock Company. Between 2019 and January 2022, additional transfers totaling GHS 11,998,830.48 were made to a company owned by a staff of Buffer Stock and later re-routed to a company controlled by Mr. Abdul Wahab and his wife”.
Ghana’s Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Dr. Dominic Akuritinga Ayine
Additionally, Dr Ayine disclosed that in July 2022, EOCO’s investigation also established that GHS 251,050 was transferred from Buffer Stock accounts to another bank account belonging to Energy Partners — a company co-owned by Mr. Abdul Wahab and Buffer Stock’s corporate affairs head, Mr. Atta.
“Energy Partners is not a service provider for Buffer Stock,” the Attorney-General clarified, adding that the group used “the pretext of supplying food items to schools under the school feeding program” to siphon funds.
Laundering of Proceeds of Crime
According to Dr. Ayine, seven entities linked to Mr. Abdul Wahab and his wife were used as vehicles to launder the proceeds of crime. These included Alcani Enterprise, Alu Diba Enterprise, Energy Partners, Farhauser Ventures, Farhauser Company Limited, Alu Diba Foundation, and Sortina Enterprise, which was owned by Mr. Atiaku, the northern sector manager.
Bank documents obtained by EOCO showed that the couple and their affiliated companies became the largest depositors at Republic Bank’s Labone branch during the period of the alleged looting.
“In 2018, Sortina Enterprise, an entity owned by James Atiaku, applied to become a food supplier to Buffer Stock. This application was approved by his boss, Hanan Abdul Wahab, even though it placed him in a conflict of interest situation because he was the manager of Buffer Stock in the northern sector”.
Ghana’s Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Dr. Dominic Akuritinga Ayine
EOCO found that between 2018 and 2024, Buffer Stock transferred GHS 78,369,082.4 to Sortina Enterprise, supposedly for food supplies to schools under the feeding program.
However, “verified records, including waybills and store receipt vouchers, indicated that only GHS 27,389,872 out of the payments were backed by actual supplies,” Dr. Ayine said, adding that “there is no evidence whatsoever that the remaining GHS 50,879,021.4 paid to the enterprise was backed by food supplies or any service rendered.”
Further investigation revealed that about 98 percent of the funds paid to Sortina Enterprise were instantly re-transferred to other entities — Alcani Enterprise, Fahawza Ventures, and companies owned or affiliated with Mr. Abdul Wahab and his wife.
Under interrogation, Mr. Atiaku admitted that while some funds received were for genuine supplies, “in most instances, no supplies were made.” He told investigators that he received instructions from Mr. Abdul Wahab on where to move or re-transfer the funds. “In effect, Sortina became a conduit for Hanan Abdul Wahab and his wife to steal Buffer Stock funds without easy detection”.
A detailed transaction analysis corroborated the pattern of re-transfers: “From Sortina Enterprise to Hanan Abdul Wahab, GHS 60,179,137; from Sortina to Alcani, GHS 23,913,964.69; from Sortina to Fahawza, GHS 500,000; and from Sortina to Chain Homes, GHS 550,000,” Dr. Ayine disclosed.
He added that EOCO is continuing to trace other transfer pathways that together amount to more than GHS 40 million. The Attorney-General described the Buffer Stock scandal as one of the most egregious cases of public sector corruption in recent years, given that it involved funds intended to feed schoolchildren and pay local food suppliers.
He stressed that the evidence gathered would be pursued rigorously through the courts, but cautioned against public impatience.
“We need to do a good job. Accountability takes time, and if we rush, defense lawyers will come and raise objections, and the same Ghanaians who wanted me to go to court expeditiously will turn around and say Ayine is an incompetent Attorney-General.”
Ghana’s Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Dr. Dominic Akuritinga Ayine
He concluded by reaffirming the government’s commitment to fighting corruption through evidence-based prosecution. “Through painstaking investigations, EOCO has uncovered this illicit criminal enterprise run by a gang of corrupt lawless officials at the Buffer Stock Company,” he stated, assuring the public that justice will be served.
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