Armed men numbering about 20 and led by Richard Jakpa, Director of Special Operations at the National Security Secretariat, have raided the private residence of the former Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr Ernest Addison.

The raid, which took place on Wednesday, 19 March 2025, in the morning, occurred at the Roman Ridge property in Accra. Dr Addison was at home when the heavily armed men, some in balaclavas, wielding AK-47 semi-automatic rifles, showed up to conduct a search.

Asaase News has gathered that the team from National Security when they first arrived immediately disabled the CCTV system at the property.

They then demanded that Dr Addison lead them to the “vaults” in his house. According to Asaase Radio, the former Governor, told them that he had no vaults or any such cache of cash at home.

This did not, however, deter the security personnel, who, according to eyewitnesses, went ahead to allegedly ransack the house.

No vaults were found and no large amounts of cash were also found, according to Asaase News sources. After their search yielded no results, they decided to take the CCTV monitor and control unit with them.

Dr Addison, his wife, and their entire family are said to be traumatized after the raid, a close associate of the Addison family told Asaase News.

A former retired senior official of the central bank, when contacted about the raid, had this to say: “This is the first time in the history of Ghana that such a thing is happening to a Governor of the Bank of Ghana. This is both scary and messy,” he said.

This is, at least, the second time Mr Jakpa has led a group of armed men to raid the home of high-profile former appointees of the erstwhile Akufo-Addo administration since President John Mahama was sworn into office on 7 January 2025.

Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, Ghana’s longest-serving finance minister, was the first such high profile person whose home in Labone, Accra, was also raided by over 15 armed men on Monday, 10 February 2025.

The raid was captured on CCTV cameras installed at the property, and the footage was subsequently released to the public.