EOCO returns Hanan’s £6,700, GH¢2,750, laptops and phones after lawyers protest

The Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) has returned £6,700, GH¢2,750, two laptop computers and at least six mobile phones seized from Hanan Abdul, the former CEO of the Ghana Buffer Stock Company, his wife, Hajia Faiza Wuni, and the driver of the couple, who are standing trial for financial crimes allegedly committed against the state. Some of the items were seized in the course of investigations in 2025, while the money, one laptop and two mobile phones were seized on July 4, 2026, when Hanan was arrested at the airport, detained for four days and prevented from travelling abroad pursuant to a court order granted for medical purposes. At the last hearing of the case on September 29, 2026, when the prosecution indicated its readiness to call its first witness, lead counsel for Hanan, Godfred Dame, submitted that the trial could not commence if the seized items were not returned to the accused persons. He argued that the mobile phones contained critical pieces of evidence that the defence would use in its defence against the prosecution’s case. For that reason, the first accused person had filed a motion to compel EOCO to release the items. Immigration officer arrested following deaths of three children in car boot “The phones contain information necessary for the conduct of the trial and related to matters that are central to the subject matter of the proceedings. We need them to enable the first accused prepare adequately for his defence, including raising objections to documents to be tendered by the prosecution, in accordance with Article 19(2)(e) and (g) of the 1992 Constitution,” said the former Attorney-General and Minister for Justice. Augustine Obour, counsel for the second accused, Faiza Wuni, also informed the court that his client had requested the release of her electronic gadgets, which he said would form the basis of her defence. The prosecution argued that the trial could proceed while the motion seeking a determination on whether the accused persons were entitled to the release of the seized items was dealt with later. The trial court, presided over by Justice Francis Achibonga, however, agreed with the former Attorney-General that the prosecution could not commence its case and call its first witness without first determining the application seeking the release of the phones and other properties of the first accused. The judge said that since counsel for the first accused might need the phones alleged to have been seized by the state to enable him to prepare adequately for the trial in accordance with Article 19(2)(d) and (g) of the Constitution, it was impossible to proceed with the trial when that issue had not been determined. EOCO, taking a cue from the proceedings in court, on Monday, October 5, 2026, released the items that were the subject matter of the motion filed by counsel for the first accused, Godfred Yeboah Dame, to the accused persons. Withdrawal of charges and defective charge sheets The return of the phones is not the first time EOCO has been forced to retreat in the trial of Abdul Wahab Hanan, who has been accused of causing financial loss to the state. The development follows an earlier dispute over the seizure of Hanan’s phone and cash, which his lawyers argued was unlawful. Lawyers petition EOCO over seized items Lawyers for Hanan, Messrs. Dame & Partners, petitioned the Executive Director of EOCO, Raymond Archer, and the Attorney-General, Dr Dominic Ayine, to return their client’s property, which they said had been unlawfully retained without legal justification. “On 9th July 2026, when my client reported to EOCO to collect his items, he was handed an empty purse, a wristwatch and his boarding pass. The investigating officer, Frank Cromwell, reportedly informed him that he had no authorisation to release the remaining items, which included two mobile phones and three separate envelopes containing £5,000, £1,700, and GH¢2,750 respectively.” Mr Dame further explained that the cash in question consisted of borrowed funds meant strictly for travel and medical expenses and was not drawn from any allegedly frozen bank account. The defence team further accused EOCO officials of violating their client’s right to privacy, as guaranteed under Article 18(2) of the 1992 Constitution. The lawyers claimed that data on Mr Abdul-Wahab’s two seized mobile phones was accessed without judicial authorisation on two separate occasions — specifically, on July 6, 2026, at 7:39 p.m. and July 7, 2026, at 9:33 a.m. — while he was still in state custody. Furthermore, the letter noted that EOCO’s continued retention of Mr Abdul-Wahab’s passport violated a High Court order dated June 29, 2026. The court had released the passport to enable him to travel for medical treatment, with a directive for him to return the document directly to the Registrar of the High Court upon his return. Counsel argued that holding the passport without a specific court warrant was contrary to Article 21(4) of the Constitution. The law firm asked for a full account of the data accessed from the phones and warned that it would resort to litigation if the items were not released immediately. Faltering EOCO retreats again after eating humble pie Despite a massive press conference dubbed “the Rumble in the Jungle” by Attorney-General Dominic Ayine in 2025, at which he pronounced Hanan guilty on all charges based on what he described as “painstaking investigations by EOCO”, the trial has been rather bumpy. In May 2026, the prosecution withdrew all charges against Hanan because they were described by legal commentators as “unprosecutable”. He was subsequently re-arrested and re-arraigned before the court on new charges, but the case suffered another setback when the state decided to withdraw a large portion of the evidence it had presented to the court because it could no longer rely on it. The new charges filed by the prosecution were also heavily challenged by Godfred Dame as defective, resulting in further changes to the charge sheet. The return of the phones and cash is the latest setback for EOCO in its efforts to prosecute Hanan Abdul Wahab Hanan, with the defence continuing to challenge the evidence and procedures underpinning the case.Source: www.ghanaweb.com
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