Credit: Kekeli K. Blamey
A growing scandal involving senior public officials has raised new concerns about abuse of office and systemic corruption at Ghana’s key institutions, as the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) formally charged four individuals over an alleged scheme to divert 10 containers of imported rice at the Tema Port.
At the heart of the case is James Keck Osei, a former Director at the Secretariat of the ex-Vice President, who, alongside three others—including an official from the National Insurance Commission, Issah Seidu, and senior Customs officers John Abban and Peter Archibold Hyde—is accused of engineering a fraudulent attempt to seize and profit from the rice containers.
The rice, legally imported from Thailand in 2022 with all duties fully paid, became the target of a covert effort to sidestep customs protocols, according to an OSP statement published on X (formerly Twitter). Investigators allege that Seidu used forged documents, including a counterfeit letter supposedly from the Vice President’s Office, to lay claim to the goods.
What appeared at first to be a routine customs clearance spiraled into a deeper probe when internal red flags were raised. A subsequent High Court ruling reportedly uncovered the attempted misappropriation, derailing what prosecutors describe as a “carefully coordinated inside job.”
“This case illustrates how high-level connections and internal weaknesses can be exploited to undermine lawful trade and state revenue,” said an anti-corruption analyst familiar with the investigation.
All four accused are expected to appear before the court on June 27, 2025, facing charges including corruption, wire fraud, and document forgery.
The OSP’s prosecution is being closely watched by transparency advocates as a litmus test for the government’s resolve in tackling elite-level corruption and restoring public trust in regulatory institutions.
