The now notoriously shameful Gestapo style and humiliating search of Ken Ofori-Atta’s residence on 10 February 2025 in his absence in the United States of America (US) by a select team of operatives of the National Security Secretariat (NSS) led by Richard Jakpa and his subsequent declaration by the Special Prosecutor, Kissi Agyebeng, at a media conference on 12 February 2025 as a fugitive from justice has now been confirmed to be a unified approved government operation masquerading as an exercise of discretionary powers by separate independent law enforcement agencies.
The pieces of the jigsaw have fallen in place and those with common-sense can now reason and see that the Special Prosecutor’s letter of 25 January 2025 demanding the appearance of the former Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, in person at the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) for investigation for the suspected commission of a number of corruption and corruption-related offences and the invasion of the privacy of his home on 10 February 2025 by the NSS were intertwined and interwoven as coming directly upon the orders of the government.
The balloon concealing the dishonourable lies and disclaimers the Special Prosecutor has consistently told the citizens of Ghana at a series of media conferences that he was acting independently of government directives and orders has been burst by the exclusive interview granted by the Deputy Minister for Justice, Justice Srem-Sai, on 11 June 2025 to Joy News which puts the government’s active participation in the unified operation to humiliate Ken Ofori-Atta in the court of public opinion beyond doubt. As myjoyonline.com reported on 10 June 2025: “The search [of SML on a warrant] was carried out under court orders, was supported by personnel from the National Security Secretariat”, showing the joint nature of the operations from the inception of the OSP’s inquisition called an investigation.
The source of the Special Prosecutor’s authority to conduct the political kabuki dance of trying Ken Ofori-Atta in the court of public opinion beginning with the media conference of 12 February 2025, leading to the second infamous public show of declaring him a wanted person together with the declaration of his being a fugitive from justice on 2 June 2025 and finally culminating in the publication of an INTERPOL Red Notice against him on 5 June 2025 have now come home to roost at the President’s office as the repository of the prosecutorial executive authority of Ghana.
In my last discourse on the political persecution of Ken Ofori-Atta in the court of public opinion instead of a prosecution in a court of law, I asked for answers whether the Special Prosecutor had the temerity to issue an INTERPOL Red Notice against a former Member of the National Security Council who was abroad without notifying the President of his intentions for reasons of the country’s national security. The Deputy Minister for Justice, Justice Srem-Sai, has provided the answers by confirming my suspicion that the Special Prosecutor was acting on the direct orders of the government and the Attorney-General’s Office all along. This is a typical case of : “Cry ‘Havoc!’ and let slip the dogs of war.”(See Mark Antony in Julius Caesar).
The OSP has no authority to make any extradition request to the United States of America (US) pursuant to the requested and published INTERPOL Red Notice. An extradition request to the designated authority of a counterpart requested state such as the US has to come from a designated authority of counterpart requesting state such as Ghana even though a law enforcing authority of the requesting state might have initiated the request for extradition. Consequently, the Special Prosecutor could not have cowardly refused or failed to investigate Ken Ofori-Atta while the New Patriotic Party (NPP) which appointed him was in government only to turn round eighteen days after the NPP handed over power to the NDC to courageously hound him in the media without instructions from above and an assurance that the government as the requesting authority in Ghana will make an extradition request to the US for his surrender to Ghana.
The corruption and corruption-related offence(s) for which a warrant of arrest was obtained for the arrest of Ken Ofori-Atta upon which the Special Prosecutor requested the INTERPOL Red Notice is stated as abuse of public office for profit. It follows that should Ken Ofori-Atta be surrendered to the Ghanaian authority, which is most unlikely in my estimation, he cannot be brought to trial in Ghana for “any other crime or offence, or on account of any other matter , than those for which the extradition has taken place, until he has been restored, or has had an opportunity of returning to the territory of the High Contracting Party by whom he has been surrendered.” (See Article 7 of the Bilateral Extradition Treaty with the USA).
This is the reason I find the reportage of the Deputy Minister for Justice’s exclusive interview with Joy News stating that: “Former Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta is facing deepening legal troubles, as both the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) and the National Intelligence Bureau (NIB) have declared him a wanted man” and linking this to the statement that: “This development comes amid ongoing efforts by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) to get Mr. Ofori-Atta to answer questions about alleged financial misconduct” very strange. The offence of abuse of public office for profit is a different offence from a financial or economic or procurement offence involving causing financial loss to the state or other economic crimes.
The existing Red Notice for Ken Ofori-Atta’s arrest and surrender by the US to Ghana does not cover procurement malpractices and/or financial or economic crimes. The impression being created by the government that the OSP’s Red Notice will cover other offences being investigated by the EOCO and/or the NIB other than abuse of public office for profit forming the basis of the Red Notice is another seriously deceptive media psychological operation by the government against Ken Ofori-Atta intended to deepen the persecution of the suspect in the court of public opinion instead of a prosecution before a court of law.
This is the context within which the confirmation by the Deputy Minister for Justice reported by Joy News “ that the government has now initiated processes to extradite Mr. Ofori-Atta from abroad, where he is currently believed to be” based on the OSP’s Red Notice must be understood as a purposeful deception and a continuation of the persecution of the suspect in the court of public opinion in violation of his right to the presumption of innocence. The statement by the Deputy Minister that: “We [the Government and the Attorney-General’s Office] are currently in the process of taking steps to have him extradited to Ghana” in relation to the EOCO, the NIB and the OSP declaring him wanted using the OSP’s Red Notice was intended to underscore the guilt of the suspect even before he could be surrendered by the US to Ghana if Ghana met the threshold for such surrender in the US Courts.
I consistently warned during the Nana Akufo-Addo regime that inventing unprofessional reasons for using the system of criminal justice to haunt down and persecute political adversaries in the court of public opinion to prejudice their eventual trial in a court of law will be unprofessionally reciprocated by the adversary when they come to power no matter how unconstitutional such unethical persecutorial conduct may be. The NDC ought to rise above such unprofessional conduct by prosecuting suspected crimes instead of choosing the persons they wish to persecute in the court of public opinion even before triable charges have been brought against them as suspects in a court of law.
It is important for every government to remember the saying that: “But in these cases, we still have judgment here, that we, but teach bloody instructions, which, being taught return to plaque th’inventor. This even handed justice commends th’ingredience of our poisoned chalice to our own lips…” The 1992 Constitution frowns upon using the media to find a citizen of Ghana guilty in the court of public opinion and thereby denude the constitutional presumption of innocence and a fair trial in a court of law. The President might be getting decent advice from his cohort of sycophants about what is good for John Dramani Mahama as “King Lear” but not what is good for Ghana.
Professionally unconstitutional and unethical investigatory and prosecutorial conduct is like a cork which regardless of how forcefully it is pushed down will always float to the surface of water as the exclusive interview of the Deputy Minister for Justice has eventually let the cat out of the bag showing that the Special Prosecutor is just a conduit carrying out the dirty work of the government to ensure his continued employment by the government after the demise of the government that appointed him. Otherwise, why did the Special Prosecutor not investigate and prosecute Ken Ofori-Atta when the government that appointed Kissi Agyebeng as the Special Prosecutor was in power? Hopefully, Ken Ofori-Atta’s trial in the court of public opinion is not the case of only Kissi Agyebeng’s “ vaulting ambition, which o’verleaps itself, and falls on th’other.”
Rubicon was crossed when Kissi Agyebeng applied for the issuance of the INTERPOL Red Notice against Ken Ofori-Atta despite an on-going negotiation by his lawyers for his return after his medical treatment abroad. The strength of the OSP’s case against Ken Ofori-Atta will be laid bare for the whole world to see when the government makes a formal request to the US government for the extradition of Ken Ofori-Atta to Ghana for the lone offence of abuse of public office for profit which is very difficult to prove by primary evidence for lack of willing witnesses.
Kissi Agyebeng and the government have already achieved their unethical objective of destroying Ken Ofori-Atta’s reputation in the court of world public opinion by the Red Notice against him uncaring of whether or not there is sufficient evidence to prosecute him for the alleged offence. Ken Ofori-Atta’s family should, therefore, call the government’s bluff by not pressurizing him to voluntarily return after his recovery from surgery only to die of the stress of persecutorial inquisition instead of a fair trial in a court of law.
The Constitution demands even-handed justice in the investigation of criminal suspects no matter who the suspects are that is why as a constitutional advocate who made findings on suspected corruption offences in the pending uninvestigated Agyapa Royalties Transaction Report as the founding Special Prosecutor, I also have a constitutional duty to speak out against the inquisition instead of the prosecution of Ken Ofori-Atta who is entitled to the fundamental right to a fair trial in a court of law. Stop subverting the 1992 Constitution!
Martin A. B. K. Amidu 23 June 2025
