Why Dame is displeased with court ruling on ex-NAFCO boss’ travel order

Former Attorney General, Godfred Yeboah Dame, has criticised the outcome of an application seeking to revoke the travel orders granted to his client, former NAFCO Chief Executive Officer, Hanan Abdul-Wahab Aludiba.

He contended that though the application had been struck out, it was inconsequential because the July 12, 2026, timeline earlier given to his client had already lapsed, and he also expected the court to enforce an order for EOCO to release his client’s passport.

A-G, EOCO seize Hanan's £7,000 after re-arrest; Dame complains to Dr Ayine

Speaking to the media after proceedings on Thursday, July 16, 2026, Dame questioned why the court did not insist on the return of his client's passport to the court registry, as the passport remained in the custody of the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO).

According to him, the court had ordered that the passport be returned to its registry by July 14, 2026, after his client completed his trip, but that directive could not be complied with because EOCO arrested and detained him at the time.

"Now, the reason why I'm quite baffled by what the court did today is that, well, the order for the passport to return to registry was actually given by the court. It was part of the court's orders both at the time the bail was granted to him and also at the time this order for him to travel was granted that after travelling, he should return the passport by 14 July. And that has not been done because EOCO arrested him and he's keeping the passport,” he said.

Dame said his legal team would not make any further application for the release of the passport if the court was not interested in ensuring compliance with its own orders.

"So, if the court is not interested in ensuring compliance with this order for the passport to return to the court registry, I do not mind. We will not make any application at all to the court for any passport to be released. It's up to the court.

“If the court doesn't want the passport to be returned again to the registry of the court, so be it. At the appropriate time when there's a need for him to travel, we'll make an application to the court for him to travel. That's all,” he indicated.

The former Attorney General also accused the state of deliberately preventing his client from complying with the court's directives by arresting and detaining him.

He argued that the Attorney General's application was incompetent because it was filed after the travel order had already expired.

"The conduct of the state must really be emphasised. I'm quite surprised that the state who are trying to behave in this way conducts itself in the way it does to violate a citizen of Ghana in this manner. They, of course, prevented the court's order from being obeyed by arresting him and detaining him for the period of 4 days and 4 nights and all,” he stated.

"And then deliberately filed a motion and fixed it until after a lapse of order and I'm surprised that a deputy attorney general would come to court seeking to invoke an order which has lapsed.

Court strikes out A-G's application to revoke order permitting Hanan to travel

“So clearly that application was incompetent, could not be granted because the order had lapsed. And they orchestrated the lapse of the order because they arrested him, put him in their cells and seized his passport to prevent him from travelling and all that,” he added.

His client Hanan is facing charges of willfully causing financial loss to the state, defrauding by false pretences among others in the Buffer Stock case.

MAG/VPO

Mansion, Luxury Vehicles: US lists properties seized from Abu Trica amid trial