EOCO ARRESTS TWO OVER ALLEGED GH¢55M IMCCoD FRAUD
The Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) has confirmed the arrest of Dennis Edward Aboagye — known publicly as “Miracles” — the former Executive Secretary of the Inter-Ministerial Coordinating Committee on Decentralisation (IMCCoD), along with Gerald Appiah, the Secretariat’s former Accountant, in connection with an investigation into the suspected loss of about GH¢55 million in public funds. (EOCO’s statement renders the figure “GHe55 million,” almost certainly a rendering error for the cedi symbol, GH¢.)
According to EOCO’s press statement, the investigation originated in a forensic audit of the IMCCoD Secretariat covering 1 August 2022 to 2 February 2025, and was escalated after the Secretariat’s current Executive Secretary petitioned the agency to pursue the audit’s findings further. EOCO says the funds are suspected to have been misappropriated, misapplied, diverted or stolen, and that Aboagye, Appiah “and others” are under investigation for conspiracy to steal, using public office for profit, causing financial loss to the state, dissipating public funds, defrauding by false pretences, and money laundering. These remain allegations under investigation; EOCO’s statement does not indicate that either man has been formally charged before a court, and no factual findings have been tested judicially.
A parallel, disputed narrative. Aboagye is a senior figure in the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) — an aide to former Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia and a declared aspirant for the party’s National Communications Director post — and his arrest, at Kotoka International Airport on Sunday 12 July, was reported by Ghanaian outlets roughly a day before EOCO’s statement, initially through NPP channels rather than an EOCO announcement.
The party’s General Secretary, Justin Frimpong Kodua, said in a statement reported by multiple outlets that Aboagye’s lawyers had been denied access to him, that his whereabouts were undisclosed, and that no charges had been preferred at the time. The NPP has characterised the arrest as politically motivated, pointing to Aboagye’s criticism of the government over illegal small-scale mining (“galamsey”) and to a broader pattern it alleges of arrests targeting its members; it has demanded he be released or arraigned in accordance with Article 14(2) of the 1992 Constitution, which requires prompt disclosure of grounds for arrest and access to legal counsel.
The party’s National Organiser, Henry Nana Boakye, said on Channel One TV that Aboagye had received no prior invitation from EOCO and had not been informed of any wrongdoing before his arrest. The NPP has said it will march to EOCO’s offices on 13 July over the matter.
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