OSP's Ken Ofori-Atta ‘Fugitive From Justice’ Declaration. A Showmanship, Auditioning, Replacement Repellant, Or Real Business?

Wearing of white clothes has never been an automatic elevation of one’s status to that of a saint. No matter how white like snow one’s clothes are, the laws of Ghana can easily cause the printing of beautiful black stars on them, and give you a ‘befitting’ place of abode far different and less in comfort from your cherished home when the scale of justice finds you guilty.

THE ‘FUGITIVE FROM JUSTICE’ DECLARATION.

The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) on February 12, 2025, declared Ken Ofori-Atta, Ghana’s former Finance Minister as Fugitive from Justice. Many were surprised about the pronouncement not because of the name Ken Ofori-Atta, but the boldness the Special Prosecutor, Kissi Agyabeng displayed in addressing the press to let the public appreciate the reasoning behind his declaration of the former Finance Minister in the Nana Akuffo Addo and Dr. Bawumia government wanted to answer questions bordering on causing financial loss to the State and other corrupt dealings he is alleged to be part of, or to have committed.

I would like to respectfully ask the OSP who is a distinguished legal brain, especially in criminal law, knowing he studied Law in one of the prestigious law schools in the United States, Cornell Law School and can navigate the legal system in the United States where it is believed the wanted Ken Ofori-Atta is currently living. When will Ken Ofori-Atta’s photograph be on the website of the Office of the Special Prosecutor among the wanted individuals currently displayed on the site? Is it an issue of some officials or the caliber of persons not deserving of the world’s spectacle for not being photogenic enough?

At the time of writing this piece, I did not see any clean white cloth dressed former Ghana Minister of Finance among the wanted individuals posted on your website.

Before you get to the point of adding value to his affectionate white shirts and shorts, with a tie dye printed black stars sparingly positioned on them if he is ultimately found guilty, please do us a favor by marketing his white clothing and ‘innocent handsome face on your website for many to pray for his speedy recovery, and to come and answer your ‘white-color’ questions, for some of his actions and inactions as a former Finance Minister have rendered individuals and families paralyzed, bedridden, useless, jobless and homeless without the luxury of care he is currently receiving in the most advanced country in the world.

For some, his presence in the same jurisdiction where the alleged criminality he committed and supervised, will be a welcome therapeutic gift to regain their strength and livelihood at least.

OWNERSHIP OF TRAUMATIZATION; KEN OFORI-ATTA’S OR GHANAIANS’?

We are being told through the minority leader in Parliament that the characterization of Ken Ofori Atta as a Fugitive from Justice has traumatized him? He had the time to speak to the minority leader at length and concluded by the usual playing the victim tactics. He did not get that luxury of time to come and clear his name at the Office of the Special Prosecutor after officially writing to the OSP he cannot not be in Ghana indefinitely and had to begin shifting post, as reported by the OSP in the press conference?

Playing the victim card to court public sympathy, especially among some gullible citizenry and the uninformed, instead of being remorseful has been the modus operandi of most of the NPP leadership, especially in opposition. They are quick to accuse everyone but themselves about their own orchestration and force it to the gullible ones to buy in.

When Ken Ofori-Atta led the Finance Ministry to embark on an aggressive stabbing of the national purse entrusted in their care to bleed in volumes like the pool currently valued at some 58 million dollars, who were the victims and traumatized?

When under his leadership as Finance Minister, he chose to painfully inflict on pensioners painful haircuts without the luxury of choosing their preferred haircut classs, who were the victims and traumatized?

When they activated deaf ears to the call for reshuffling of him Ken Ofori-Atta to step down as Finance Minister because the economy of the country was declared junk status and the suffering of the people became unbearable, to the point children had to join with their voices, who were the victims and traumatized?

Must he be reminded about how he led the collapse of the banking sector to render many Ghanaians jobless, homeless and helpless to the point many died in sorrow while sobbing and cursing? Who were the victims and the traumatized?

Maybe I should remind them of the many whose health conditions deteriorated badly to the point they had no way of accessing their own money for medication and dialysis. Who is justified to be victims and traumatized?

Today if he is being investigated under legitimate laws of Ghana, for his stewardship and alleged financial loss to the State, he is cowardly playing a victim that he never is, and claiming to be traumatized?

FINANCIAL LOSS TO THE STATE ADVOCACY AND PRECEDENCE.

The law of financial loss to the State was passed in1993 to amend the Criminal Code. Both the NPP and NDC applied this law. However, it was during the NPP Kuffuor’ regime that its application was massive and it led to the conviction of some former ministers and appointees of the NDC regime.

Those who were jailed under this law and pardoned later included, the late Victor Selomey, former finance minister, Kwame Preprah, then former deputy Finance Minister, Ibrahim Adams, former Food and Agriculture Minister, Dan Abodakpi, former Trade and Industry Minister, George Sipa Yankey, a government appointee, and Tsatsu Tsikata, former Chief Executive of Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC). Tsatu Tsikata, a law luminary of International repute rejected the pardon of former President Kuffuor and fought the case to be overturned. He was acquired and discharged.

If there was any time in Ghana the citizenry must be hopeful that the law of causing financial loss to the State will be enforced to the latter, it is now. Strong advocates of this law are the ones at the center of anti-corruption campaigns and fight against misappropriation of public funds. They are strategically positioned in the current government to see to its enforcement.

The Speaker of Parliament, Right Hon. Alban Kingsford Sumana Bagbin, is a fierce advocate and defender of keeping the financial loss to the State law. Hon. Alban Bagbin when he was the minority leader in Parliament expressed his satisfaction at the passage of the law by the first Parliament of the 4^th Republic.

He is reported on GhanaWeb on May 30, 2008 to have said during Justice V. M. Dotse’s appearance before the appointment committee of Parliament on his nomination as a Supreme Court Judge. “I think Parliament was right in passing the law on Causing Financial Loss to the State and I will resist any move to repeal it”. This was when Justice Dotse had said it was “dangerous” for him to comment on that law when some of the cases bordering on it were before him, but if Parliament in its wisdom thinks it should be abolished then he has no objection. This was when prominent people like the former CEO of AngloGold Ashanti Dr. Sam Jonah then had expressed the controversial nature of the law, arguing that it could discourage official initiatives and discretion.

Honorable Samuel Okudzeto on the other hand, is in Parliament too. Champion of anticorruption and Chairman of Operation Recover All Loot (ORAL), and now the Foreign Affairs Minister, is known to have made his chasing of loot by people outside of Ghana very easy even before his elevation to the Foreign Affairs Minister position. He is one of those in Parliament who have pursued the 58 million dollar National Cathedra case hanging on the neck of Ken Ofori-Atta. He has investigated the case to some extent, to the point of traveling to the US to ascertain who indeed robbed Ghana to the tune of about $6 million in the Cathedral case described as Consultant for the United States, in the person of Mr. Carry Lee Summers who shared the same address with one Dr. Paul Opoku-Mensah. This Carry summers just after receiving the $6 million was reported to have bought a new 4-bedroom house at 10107 E Farm Road 156, Rogersville, Missouri 65742? Hon. Okudzeto's facebook page had the post, and was reported by City News Room on May 2, 2023.

The Attorney General is also a Member of Parliament and being the nation’s prosecutor, it will be a case worth investigating and following keenly too.

WILL THE OSP, PARLIAMENT, ORAL, THE COURTS AND THE ATTORNEY GENERAL BE A FINE WOVEN BASKET OR AN ENTANGLED WEB IN THIS CASE?

The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) was established in 2018 with its power emanating from Office of the Special Prosecutor Act, 2017 (Act 959), OSP Regulations, 2018 (L. I. 2373), OSP Regulation, 2018 (L. I. 2374), and other laws enacted to suppress and repress corruption in Ghana, in pursuance of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC).

It appears Ghana acknowledges that even though there are existing anti–corruption agencies constitutionally mandated to deal with corruption related issues and other crimes, events of the years passed have caused many, especially the citizenry to doubt their efficacy and whether they have the teeth to not only bite where it matters, but bite very hard and ruthless to punish, deter and instill discipline and confidence in criminal cases management.

The OSP, to many, is a welcome spice to inject that missing outcome and to independently operate without any influence from the private or the public sectors. The OSP from the Acts that birthed it, is tasked to be a remedy of the inadequacies or some shortfalls and handicaps that bedeviled the already existing anti-corruption agencies over the years and still continue to be difficulties these agencies face, especially the interference of the Executive.

The OSP’s strength according to their website lies in its power to investigate, prosecute, gather intelligence, activate surveillance and counter-surveillance. Others are to police, ensure national security and to some extent generate revenue.

At least the OSP can subtly pride itself with the over GHC 3 million recovered since its inception with the constraints and suffocation the office has constantly amplified publicly to have been subjected to in the previous NPP government.

Granted all the information gathered by ORAL is given ultimately to the OSP with the full support of the Attorney General in the arena of prosecutions, coupled with the cry from many Ghanaians to recover loots, especially from the Nana Akufo Addo Dankwa and Dr. Bawumia government, the recovery wheels of the OSP will be greased enough to be busy and motivated to retrieve looted public funds and properties, especially in the new area of lifeclass auditing. Ghanaians till date cannot phantom how some government officials acquired their riches, some even in their early twenties were already business men swimming in millions of dollars that are not inheritance.

Parliament must also be actively part of the woven basket to exercise their oversight responsibilities and prioritize holding former and current public officials accountable to the nation, for most of the malfeasance stepped in their chamber and walked away freely or disguised. The people are counting on them to use the power vested in them as a body under Chapter 10 of Ghana’s Constitution, Article 103, Clause 6, Subsection a, b, c, below which speaks to the powers of Parliament, to bring people like Ken Ofori-Atta and others who might have ejected from the country in anticipation of an invitation from law enforcement, from wherever they are, back to Ghana.

"103 (1) Parliament shall appoint standing committees and other committees as may be necessary for the effective discharge of its functions.

(3) Committees of Parliament shall be charged with such functions, including the investigation and inquiry into the activities and administration of ministries and departments as parliament may determine; and such investigation and inquiries may extend to proposals for legislation.

(6) A committee appointed under this article shall have the powers, rights and privileges of the High Court or a Justice of the High Court at a trial for -

(a) enforcing the attendance of witnesses and examining them on oath, affirmation or otherwise;

(b) compelling the production of documents; and

(c) issuing a commission or request to examine witnesses abroad.

The duties of the OSP as spelled out on their website, permeate the same aspirations of ORAL and the emerging OPAL being out doored lately. OSP is charged with the responsibilities of investigating and prosecuting special cases of alleged orchestration suspected corruption and corruption-related offenses, in the public and private sectors, recovering the proceeds of such acts by distorting illicit and unexplained wealth, and taking steps to prevent corruption.

These responsibilities are not alien to the responsibilities of the Attorney General, and what the purpose of the ORAL and OPAL equally seek to achieve. It will therefore not be out of place for the ultimate objectives of these interwoven duties and responsibilities among these State entities to be streamlined and fused romantically to be harmoniously beneficial to the nation devoid of duplication of efforts and resources, as TIME is the major wheels on which the successes of uprooting corruption, or at least making it unattractive, and the retrieval of looted national resources and properties, can proactively ride on.

If it is indeed not showmanship, auditioning to be noticed, and or be a replacement repellant in the wake of appointments and reappointments by H. E. John Dramani Mahama, though the SP has a term, I do not doubt one bit the track record of Kissi Agyabeng and his office. I believe for God and country, he will nail Ken Ofori-Atta and the others. He has what it takes to deflate their antics and print the famous black stars sparingly on his beloved white clothes ultimately and give him an uncomfortable resting place, if the scale of justice were to tilt against him.

But can the Special Prosecutor and his team succeed in the current web of Ghana’s Judicial system packed with perceived planted judges by the former president Nana Akuffo Addo, who is a cousin to the embattled Ken Ofori-Atta?

Will the ORAL findings, Parliament's powers under Article 103, Clause 6, subsection a, b, c, the newly born OPAL, the Courts and the Attorney General’s office in this web, strengthen or weaken Kissi Agyabeng’s office as Ghana’s Special Prosecutor?

There must be a high level coordination between all anti-corruption agencies, including the OSP, ORAL, Attorney General’s office, Parliament, and the Courts; be it the proposed tribunals or not, to not duplicate functions, else it will rather lead to financial loss to the State in the pursuit of characters who have caused Financial Loss to the State.

I rest my PEN.
Mustapha Alhassan
Pennsylvania, USA.

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