Ato Forson goofs in GHS85m transit goods scam
26th February 2026
The alleged diversion of transit goods destined for landlocked Niger was, after all, not diverted as the Finance Minister, Cassiel Ato Forson, would want Ghanaians to believe, The Daily Gist newspaper reports.
The minister had reported a massive transit diversion scheme at Ghana’s eastern border, allegedly exposing deep cracks within the country’s customs control system.
Some customs officers had allegedly collaborated with an importer to evade more than GH¢85 million in taxes through the illegal diversion of articulated trucks declared as goods in transit.
The minister quickly dashed to the Eastern frontier, calling for an immediate investigation to unravel the circumstances surrounding the alleged deal.
The scandal has already claimed one person, the Customs Commissioner, Brigadier General Glover Ashong Annan, who has been sacked from his position. His dismissal is a story for another day.
The scandal traces back to the afternoon of February 16, 2026, when a convoy of articulated trucks officially left the Akanu Border Post at exactly 1:18 p.m. under transit documentation.
The trucks were routed through Akanu, Dabala, Techiman, and were expected to exit Ghana at Kulungugu en route to Niger.
The consignment was processed under Bill of Entry (BOE) Number 80226125039, with the officer in charge listed as Second-in-Command Joseph Manu, a Principal Revenue Officer, and the examination officer recorded as Ayiku Charles Tei.
All the trucks were reportedly covered under insurance bond arrangements, with ownership of the goods linked to a Nigerien trader identified as Adamou Moumouni.
Officially, the trucks were declared as transit cargo carrying edible cooking oil, tomato paste, and spaghetti. The declared consignment comprised 44,055 packages with a total weight of 879,860 kilograms.
On paper, the shipment was classified as goods merely passing through Ghanaian territory from the Port of Lome, which allowed it to benefit from suspended duties and taxes under the transit regime.
However, a supposed intelligence-led surveillance and field operations later uncovered what authorities now describe as a deliberate diversion scheme designed to smuggle the goods into the local market while evading taxes.
On the night of February 18, 2026, the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority intercepted 18 articulated trucks declared as transit goods to Niger.
The trucks were said to be moving without the legally required Customs Human Escort, a mandatory safeguard for high-risk transit consignments.
Bogus Informant
A specialized enforcement team later intercepted 12 of the trucks during a major overnight operation along the Dawhenya–Tema Road between 10:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m. after an informant allegedly passed on false information about the movement of the trucks. There was no diversion as the minister alleged.
The operation was led by the Deputy Commissioner for Operations, Aaron Kanor, who has just been appointed Acting Commissioner of Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) replacing Brig General Glover Annan, with support from the Chief Revenue Officer for Preventive Services at Tema Collection, the Revenue Mobilisation Taskforce of National Security, and enforcement officers from both the Tema Collection office and Customs Headquarters.
Investigators confirmed that all 18 trucks had been electronically gated out of the customs system as transit goods destined for Niger via Kulungugu.
According to inside sources all the trucks were in the right route to Niger contrary to suggestion that the trucks should have used the Eastern Corridor road to exit from Ghana.
The trucks the sources said could not have used the Eastern corridor road because there is no network to support the Integrated Customs Management Systems (ICUMS) tracking system hence using the Dabala, Accra, Techiman route to exit at Kulungugu.
The Ministry of Finance has since ordered a formal investigation into how such a high-risk transit consignment could move through multiple control points without interception.