The former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Food and Buffer Stock Company Limited (NAFCO), Hanan Abdul-Wahab Aludiba, and his wife, Faiza Seidu Wuni, have been re-arraigned before the High Court on fresh charges as the Attorney-General rebuilds its prosecution following the withdrawal of the original 24-count charge sheet filed in October last year.

Unlike the previous charge sheet, which named NAFCO's Head of Finance, Richard Sam-Asante, as an accused, the fresh charges are limited to Aludiba and his wife alone.

Sam-Asante, who was a signatory to NAFCO's bank accounts alongside Aludiba, is named in the new charge sheet as a witness whose conduct will form part of the evidence at trial.

Aludiba and Seidu Wuni are facing multiple counts spanning defrauding by false pretence, stealing, willfully causing financial loss to the Republic, using public office for profit, dishonestly receiving, money laundering and intentional misapplication of public funds under the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29), the Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2020 (Act 1044), and the Public Property Protection Decree, 1977 (SMCD 140). 

They have, once again, pleaded not guilty to the charges against them.

The court, presided over by Justice Francis Apangabuno Achibonga, yesterday admitted Aludiba to bail in the sum of GH¢60 million with two sureties to be justified, while his wife has been admitted to bail in the sum of GH¢3.5 million, also with two sureties to be justified.

Apart from being placed on stop lists, they are to deposit their passports at the court registry and report to EOCO once every two weeks.

Prosecution's facts

NAFCO is Ghana's national strategic food security agency and the sole supplier of foodstuff to the school feeding component of the Free Senior High School programme.

Aludiba served as NAFCO's CEO from 2017 to 2025 — a tenure during which, the prosecution alleges, he systematically looted the company's funds through a network of proxies and personal enterprises, starving the programme of resources meant to feed school children.

Prosecutors allege that in 2017, barely upon assuming office, Aludiba submitted to NAFCO a rent claim of GH¢734,400 — equivalent to $127,500 — purportedly for two years' rent on Plot 2.51, Cayman, within the Chain Homes Estate in Tse-Addo, Accra, which NAFCO paid.

Per the charge sheet Aludiba, who never lived at the property during the period, claimed that the property was not completed until 2020 — three years after he collected the rent.
It added that the documentation the accused submitted in support of the claim was not genuine.

The biggest allegation in the charge sheet borders on payments to Sawtina Enterprise, the trading name of James Tieku-Apawu, a NAFCO Regional Manager, for the Northern, Savannah and North-East regions.

The prosecution said that between February 2017 and February 2025, Aludiba caused NAFCO to pay approximately GH¢50.87 million to Sawtina Enterprise, ostensibly for foodstuff purchases.

In the police investigative caution statement, the prosecution said Tieku-Apawu admitted receiving GH¢78.26 million from NAFCO into Sawtina's bank account, but stated that only about 20 per cent of that sum represented genuine foodstuff supplies.

The remaining 80 per cent, the prosecution said, was for no supplies at all.

"Investigations established that more than GH¢50 million was transferred from Sawtina back, directly to Aludiba, to his businesses, to his wife's businesses, and towards the acquisition of landed properties in prime areas of Accra and elsewhere.

"The cheques authorising the transfers from NAFCO were signed by Aludiba as CEO and Sam-Asante as Head of Finance," the prosecution said.

The prosecution said investigations further established that between February 2017 and February 2019, GH¢5.49 million was paid from NAFCO's funds to Aludiba Enterprise — the accused's own personal trading name — under the pretence that it had sold foodstuff to NAFCO.

The prosecution said Aludiba Enterprise was not a licenced buying company and had never traded with NAFCO.

Additionally, in July 2022, Aludiba allegedly authorised a NAFCO payment of GH¢251,050 to Energy Partners Limited, a company he owns and controls, for which no goods or services were rendered.

FA-Hausa Ventures — a business of Seidu Wuni in which Aludiba is a bank account signatory at the Republic Bank, Labone Branch, has been named by the prosecution as a key conduit.

From February 2020 to November 2022, Aludiba is said to have deposited GH¢13.21 million into FA-Hausa Ventures' account, with investigations tracing the source of those funds to NAFCO through Sawtina's account.

Subsequent investigations, according to the prosecution, established that the monies were used to purchase properties in prime areas in Accra, Tamale and elsewhere.

The prosecution further alleged that monies in FA-Hausa Ventures' account in excess of GH¢161.45 million were invested by the accused persons in money instruments and other securities for their personal use and benefit.