Nigerian businessman, Benedict Peters, widely known as Ben Peters, was reportedly arrested in a joint operation involving operatives of Ghana’s National Security, the Ghana Police Service, and the Ghana Armed Forces.
Ben Peters, together with about 25 unidentified men, were reportedly arrested for allegedly blocking access to an apartment building close to the seat of government, the Jubilee House, and also for blowing a police siren on one of his vehicles, on Monday, April 7, 2025.
But this is not the first time the Nigerian billionaire business tycoon has made news headlines in Ghana.
During the government of former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Ben Peters, who is believed to be a friend of the Akufo-Addo family, came up in a number of corruption scandals.
He is the owner of Frontiers Healthcare Services Limited, the company that was responsible for the COVID-19 testing at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2022, now Minister of Foreign Affairs, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, claimed that Ben Peters amassed a profit of GH¢984.7 million (US$130 million) from COVID-19 testing in just 18 months, at the expense of the Ghana Airport Company, which made only US$8 million.
In 2023, Ben Peters’ name came up again in the ‘Heaven Scandal,’ also shared by Okudzeto Ablakwa, who is the Member of Parliament for the North Tongu constituency in the Volta Region.
Ablakwa claimed that 62.14 acres of airport lands priced at over US$6.3 million per 1.7 acres in 2019 were sold to Heaven Builders Limited, a company owned by the Nigerian billionaire, who he said is a friend of Edward Akufo-Addo, alias “Bumpty,” a younger brother of Akufo-Addo, at US$1.3 per 1.7 acres.
Aside from the two companies mentioned above, Ben Peters owns extensive assets in the oil and gas and mining industries in several countries, including Ghana.
He is the founder and CEO of Aiteo, which is believed to be Africa’s largest indigenous oil producer, and Bravura Holdings, a vertically integrated mining company developing platinum, lithium, steel, copper, and gold assets in countries throughout Africa.
EXCLUSIVE FOOTAGE! National Security storms Jubilee House! Nigerian Businessman, Ben Peters & 25 others arrested for blocking road near Ghana’s seat of power.#JoyNews pic.twitter.com/t299GmQU7v
— JoyNews (@JoyNewsOnTV) April 8, 2025
