Six persons who were arraigned together with the former Chief Executive of the National Petroleum Authority, Dr Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, for allegedly extorting GH¢280 mil­lion from oil marketing companies are still in custody.This is because they could not meet their respective bail condi­tions set by the High Court on Wednesday.The Office of the Special Prosecutor, which is in charge of prosecution, said in a statement on Friday that only Dr Abdul-Hamid met the bail condition.The accused were admitted to bail totalling GH¢14 million.This was after they pleaded not guilty to a total of 25 counts, including extortion by a public officer, contrary to Section 151 of the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29), conspiracy to commit money laundering, contrary to Section 23 of Act 29 and Sections 1 (1), 1 (2), and 4 of the anti-mon­ey laundering Act, 2020 (Act 1044), money laundering, contrary to Sections 1 (1), 1 (2), and 4 of Act 1044.Dr Abdul-Hamid, a former Minister of Information, two other NPA officials, Jacob Kwa­mina Amuah, Coordinator of the Unified Petroleum Pricing Fund (UPPF), and Wendy Newman, a staff member of the NPA, were granted bail in the sum of GH¢2 million each, with two sureties to be justified.As part of the bail condition, the court ordered that one of the sureties must be a public servant earning a net salary of at least GH¢5,000, while the other must provide evidence of ownership of landed property.All three accused have been directed to report to the authori­ties once every two weeks.In addition to the NPA offi­cials, five executives of three com­panies accused of facilitating the alleged money laundering scheme have also been charged.They include Albert Ankrah, Isaac Mensah, Bright Bedia­ko-Mensah, and Kwaku Aboagye Acquaah.Each of the accused has been granted bail in the sum of GH¢2 million, with three sureties, one of which must be justified with landed property.The case has been adjourned to August 26, 2025. BY MALIK SULLEMANA