EOCO boss dismisses wrongdoing claims in Hanan re-arrest row
The head of Ghana’s Economic and Organised Crime Office has pushed back against mounting criticism over the handling of former National Food Buffer Stock Company Chief Executive Abdul-Wahab Hanan and his wife Faiza Sayyid Wuni, insisting the agency acted entirely within the bounds of the law.
EOCO Executive Secretary Raymond Archer made his position clear on JoyNews’ Newsfile programme on Saturday, May 9, rejecting outright any suggestion that due process had been flouted in the couple’s detention.
“We didn’t breach any process in Hanan and his wife’s case,” he stated, maintaining that every step taken by his office fell squarely within legitimate investigative procedures.
His remarks are a direct response to concerns raised by the couple’s legal team, headed by former Attorney-General Godfred Yeboah Dame, who have alleged that they were shut out from their clients for more than 24 hours following the re-arrest — a situation they characterised as a denial of the right to legal counsel.
The re-arrest itself came on the heels of a decision by the Office of the Attorney-General to discontinue existing charges against the pair, with prosecutors citing fresh evidence as the basis for renewed action.
The sequence of events — charges dropped only for the suspects to be immediately taken back into custody — has since ignited a fierce debate in legal and public circles over the limits of prosecutorial discretion and the standards expected of agencies conducting high-profile investigations.
With the couple’s lawyers on one side and EOCO firmly standing its ground on the other, the dispute looks set to deepen before any resolution is reached.
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