REPUBLIC vs. HIGH COURT, FINANCIAL AND ECONOMIC CRIME DIVISION (COURT 2), ACCRA EX-PARTE: MALIK IBRAHIM EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ECONOMIC AND ORGANISED CRIME OFFICE

The applicant, Malik Ibrahim, was a former vice chairman and operations supervisor of Pacific Oil Ghana Ltd (POGL), a private petroleum distribution company owned by his brother, Alhaji Zakaria Ibrahim. Following internal disputes and allegations that revenues from POGL’s fuel outlets did not match sales, the brother petitioned EOCO to investigate suspected losses. EOCO, acting on the complaint and with accounting assistance, investigated the applicant and other company officials for alleged stealing, organised crime, and in the applicant’s case, money laundering. EOCO then administratively froze the applicant’s assets, including landed property and bank accounts, and obtained a High Court order confirming the freezing. When the applicant applied to discharge the order, the High Court instead varied it by appointing a receiver/manager over some filling stations and defreezing certain business accounts for management purposes. The applicant then invoked the Supreme Court’s supervisory jurisdiction, contending that EOCO lacked statutory authority under the Economic and Organised Crime Office Act, 2010 (Act 804) to investigate alleged stealing from a wholly private company and that the High Court therefore erred in confirming and varying the freezing order. Portion of judgment: paras. 2-6.