President Nana Akufo-Addo in consultation with the Council of State has granted a presidential pardon to the former Deputy National Security Coordinator under the presidency of John Mahama, Chief Alhaji Salifu Mimina Osman.

It follows a petition he received from the Chief of the Kpembe Traditional Area requesting that Alhaji Osman be freed from prison custody on the grounds of good behavior and ill-health.

In a letter dated August 1, 2023, and signed by the Secretary to President Nana Bediatuo Asante, the President charged the Minister of the Interior to take the necessary steps to give effect to the presidential pardon immediately.

Chief Alhaji Salifu Mimina Osman, a son of the Kpembe Traditional Area, was sentenced to a five-year jail term in 2020 for willfully causing financial loss to the state in what has become known as the National Communications Authority (NCA) scandal.

On May 11, 2020, three former board members of the National Communications Authority (NCA) were sentenced to a total of 16 years’ imprisonment with hard labour by an Accra High Court for misapplying funds in the purchase of controversial surveillance equipment for the National Security Council Secretariat.

Eugene Baffoe-Bonnie, a former Board Chairman; William Mathew Tetteh-Tevie, a former Director General; and Alhaji Salifu Osman Mimina, a former Deputy National Security Coordinator on the NCA Board were found guilty of 14 different charges, including causing financial loss to the state and contravention of the Public Procurement Act, by the court presided over by Justice Eric Kyei Baffour, a Court of Appeal judge sitting as a High Court judge.

The court also ordered the seizure of the properties of the convicts to defray the three million dollars financial loss caused to the state.