OSP re-declares Ofori-Atta wanted  

The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) has re-declared Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta, a former Minister for Finance, a wanted person and a fugitive from justice.

His name is hereby re-entered on the OSP’s list of wanted persons.

Mr Kissi Agyebeng, the Special Prosecutor, at a press briefing, said the office would take all necessary legal steps to secure Mr. Ofori-Atta’s return to the jurisdiction and to answer the criminal inquiries against him.

This suspect is wanted to answer charges in respect of several cases including Strategic Mobilisation-GRA Contract, Termination of ECG-BXC contract, National Cathedral payments, Ambulance Procurement contract and Tax Refund Account Utilisation.

He said by a letter dated May 30, 2025, the OSP declined Mr. Ofori-Atta’s offer of video-recorded interview for the purpose of eliciting his caution statement. 

He said the office had always insisted on his personal attendance and indicated clearly to him that it was unwilling to wait.

The Special Prosecutor said the OSP viewed Mr. Ofori-Atta’s lawyer’s letter dated May 28, 2025 as an expression of utter bad faith and it confirmed their long-held, well-considered opinion and conclusion that Mr. Ofori-Atta had no intention of voluntarily returning to the jurisdiction and to attend to the OSP.

“Further, this office is unaware of his reported information to the court, whether orally or by file processes, of the alleged change in the circumstances,” he said. 

He said Monday June 2, 2025, it was more than three hours past the scheduled time of Mr. Ofori-Atta’s attendance at the OSP, and Mr. Ofori-Atta’s failed to attend.

Mr Agyebeng said Mr. Ofori-Atta’s conduct was totally unacceptable and a baleful spite at law enforcement and criminal investigations.

He said in pursuance of this, about 30 minutes before this briefing, “I triggered processes for the issuance of an Interpol red notice for the location and provisional arrest of Mr. Ofori-Atta in whichever jurisdiction pending extradition or his surrender.”

He said around the same time, “I dispatched a request for extradition processes to be instituted for the provisional apprehension in any jurisdiction in which Mr. Ofori-Atta may be located or found and his extradition to Ghana.”

He said the OSP would prefer criminal charges in the courts against Mr. Ofori-Atta in due course, whether in absentia or otherwise.

He said the principle upon which the office proceeded was that no person, regardless of title, regardless of status, regardless of medical condition, was beyond the reach of enquiry by the OSP. 

The Special Prosecutor said if they were amenable to take any such statement from Mr. Ofori-Atta in absentia, they would have done so in February and not waited to June 2, 2025. 

“We want him here physically and we insist on it,” he added. 

He said a suspect in a criminal investigation did not pick and choose how the investigative authority should conduct its investigations and the methods suitable to him were disconvenient.

He said the Office would not count on such conduct, not in this case or in any other case. 

He said the OSP had declined Mr. Ofori-Atta’s invitation to view his biopsy report as we consider it a pointless exercise. 

Mr Agyebeng said this was because it was common learning that a biopsy report contained nothing more than a conclusion upon the removal and examination of tissue cells or fluids from a living body that some disease or malady was indicated in the samples taken.

A biopsy report is not an expression of a reasoned medical opinion that the subject of the report is an invalid and unable to travel, as Mr. Ofori-Atta sought to suggest, he said.

He said since January 24, 2025 till date, Mr. Ofori-Atta had failed to show any medical report.

He has failed to show any medical report which suggested that he was a travel risk and unable to return to the jurisdiction by reason of his medical condition.

“It has all been his singular say-so,” he said.

Source: GNA

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