OSP IS TAKING PEOPLE OF GHANA FOR GRANTED – ITS ACTIONS DAMAGE NDC AND GOVERNMENT
THE OSP IS TAKING THE PEOPLE OF GHANA FOR GRANTED – ITS ACTIONS DAMAGE THE NDC AND THE GOVERNMENT.
BY MARTIN A. B. K. AMIDU
The unfolding facts on the declaration of former Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, as a wanted suspect who had allegedly absconded from justice on 2 June 2025 at a media conference by the Special Prosecutor (SP), William Kissi Agyebeng, points to the irresistible conclusion that the SP (who is as a public officer accountable to the People of Ghana) was deliberately and dishonestly deceiving Ghanaians about the legitimacy of the decision that went into the declaration against Ken Ofori-Atta that day. The intention to declare him a wanted fugitive from justice and to apply for the issuance of an INTERPOL Red Notice was premeditated and taken before 24 January 2025 when Ken Ofori-Atta who was abroad was invited by the OSP to appear before it on 10 February 2025 without fail on pain of consequences.
Firstly, the facts from open-source and other source materials are that on 12th February 2025 when William Kissi Agyebeng declared Ofori-Atta a fugitive from justice he had already obtained an arrest warrant from a court of law for his arrest as a suspect who was evading arrest within Ghana. The Rambo style invasion of the suspect’s residence on 11 February 2025 lends credence to this fact. Without a prior warrant of arrest the OSP could not have lawfully declared Ofori-Atta as a wanted person and a fugitive from justice, which he clearly was not from the facts available to the OSP at the time. On 18 February 2025, however, the SP announced the removal of Mr. Ofori-Atta from the OSP’s Wanted List after Ofori-Atta who had been in the United States of America for medical treatment to the knowledge of the government had allegedly provided assurances of his return to Ghana by a definite return date in May 2025.
The processes filed by the OSP to obtain the arrest warrant against Ken Ofori-Atta in the court before or on 12 February 2025 will inform the public about when the charges and allegations contained in the supporting affidavit to obtain the arrest warrant were made and whether they were consistent with the law. I hope the suspect’s lawyers have applied and obtained the processes, the record of proceedings and the order drawn up for the warrant of arrest already because when one is dealing with a dishonourable public agency one needs to be extra diligent to rule out fraudulent conduct as on 12 February 2025 when the public was not told that the OSP had an arrest warrant against the suspect. Perjury by the OSP beckons!
An arrest warrant is an order of a court of law and its is only the court that can nullify it. Consequently, it struck me as odd that the SP announced to the public on 18 February 2025 that he had removed the name of the suspect from his wanted list with the attendant implication that the issuing court of law had lawfully revoked the warrant of arrest. It was obvious to me that if the OSP had not applied and obtained the revocation of the warrant of arrest upon which the suspect was declared a wanted person and fugitive from justice, then the declaration that the OSP had removed the suspect’s name from its Wanted List on 18 February 2025 was clearly a gargantuan fraud and unpardonable deception perpetrated on the public by the SP, a public officer paid by the taxpayer.
The public has the right to know the level of integrity of the OSP and in particular that of the SP who is expected to be of high moral character and proven integrity both before and after appointment. Those who knew me in private practice as a lawyer and in the Attorney-General’s Office as Deputy Attorney-General or Attorney-General and in the OSP as the founding SP know my penchant for tracking details of cases. The results of the searches in the court that issued the arrest warrant would inform the lawyers about the integrity of the process employed in obtaining it and revoking it, if at all.
Secondly, the search results obtained from the court that issued and/or later revoked the warrant of arrest, if at all, are even more important now following the demand made by the SP on 1 June 2025 published in the media for the suspect to appear the next day before the OSP or face punitive consequences. The public now knows from a rebuttal by Frank Davies on Citi Eyewitness News of 6 June 2025 that on 27 May 2025, Ken Ofori-Atta’s lawyers filed in the Human Rights Court and served on the OSP processes containing the medical records of the suspect indicating that he was due for a surgical procedure in the United States and could not appear before the OSP in Ghana as earlier agreed. Once there is evidence of service of the process containing the medical records of the suspect upon the OSP, it is irrelevant when the lawyers of the suspect wrote to the OSP forwarding a copy of the medical report to it. The medical report dated 14 May 2025 and signed by Ahmed Abdalrhim, MD, FACP, FSVM of the Section of International Medicine in Rochester at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota has since been available online after the SP denied at the media conference on 2 June 2025 of having received it.
Unless the OSP and the SP were persecuting the suspect, the OSP is deemed to have had notice of the medical records from the date of service of the court processes on the OSP , which is alleged to be on or before 28 May 2025. The declaration by the SP on 2 June 2025 to the public that he had not seen the medical report and the later argument by his puddle, the Director of Strategy, Research and Communication Division at the OSP dismissing the medical report released by the suspect’s lawyers as an “afterthought” is of no moment after being served with the court process filed in the Human Rights Court on 27 May 2025 containing the medical records.
In a prosecutorial as distinct from a persecutorial regime where integrity and due process guide investigators and prosecutors the burden was cast on the SP if he had any doubts on the medical records served on him from the Human Rights Court to have requested the lawyers of the suspect for further and better particulars of the medical report from the hospital. The SP was able to disclose at the media conference on 2 June 2025 that the suspect was alleged to be suffering from a cancer. Professional decorum required him to have been humble and humane enough to have demanded for further and better particulars on the medical report from the hospital treating the suspect from his lawyers before holding the media conference to shamefully disclose a matter bothering on the privacy of the suspect under the Constitution. If it is true that the SP did not out of bloated ego ask for further particulars of the medical record it only goes to confirm the incompetence and lack of professional acumen of the SP or a blatant abuse of power by him.
Thirdly, the lack of integrity in the conduct of the SP and the OSP becomes glaring when one comes to the realization that the SP had already made up his mind to declare the suspect a wanted person, a fugitive from justice, and had contacted the Ghana National Central Bureau of INTERPOL under the Ghana Police Service (GPS) to initiate the processes for INTERPOL to publish a Red Notice for the arrest and extradition of the suspect to Ghana after the OSP secured the first arrest warrant against the suspect on or before 12 February 2025 when the suspect was first declared a wanted person by the OSP.
The disclosure by the SP, William Kissi Agyebeng, made at his media conference held on 2 June 2025 that the OSP had submitted the Red Notice request just 30 minutes before addressing the media and called for international collaboration in apprehending the former Minister of Finance and bringing him back to Ghana to face justice cannot, therefore, be true. This statement by the SP to the media and the People of Ghana on when he submitted the Red Notice request to the Ghana National Central Bureau of INTERPOL which was carried live on television was a barefaced and irredeemable lie indicating a lack of high moral character and integrity required of the occupant of the position of SP. The process from obtaining an arrest warrant for the suspect to facilitate the process of obtaining an INTERPOL Red Notice will have to go through the Ghana National Central Bureau which when satisfied with the request will forward it to the General Secretariat of INTERPOL for intensive review before granting or refusing the request against the suspect. This takes months and not days let alone minutes, as any experienced investigator and prosecutor acquainted with the process knows.
Consequently, the impression that the SP created or sought to create on the public mind that he was a magician who demanded on 1 June 2025 that the suspect must appear in person on 2 June 2025 or face being declared wanted again and the publication by the OSP on 2 June 2025 of the suspect on its wanted list, the submission of the Red Notice request just 30 minutes before addressing the media briefing held on 2 June 2025, and the subsequent publication of the Red Notice on the website of INTERPOL on Wednesday, 5 June 2025 is a grand fraud that takes the People of Ghana for granted as idiots. This fraud can easily be proved by answering the following questions.
Did Kissi Agyebeng nullify the earlier warrant of arrest before he told the public that he had removed the suspect’s name from the OSP’s wanted list? If he did nullify the earlier arrest warrant, then, when did he apply for a fresh arrest warrant from a court of law after the suspect, Ken Ofori-Atta, failed to appear before the OSP on 2 June 2025 following his demand on 1 June 2025 to the suspect to present himself in person to the OSP the next day that enabled Kissi Agyebeng to submit a request to INTERPOL 30 minutes before the media conference and to declare the suspect a wanted suspect again on the evening of the same day? If Kissi Agyebeng did not nullify the first warrant of arrest but informed the public that the suspect’s name had been removed from the OSP Wanted List and thus implying that there was no arrest warrant pending for his arrest, then he was lying to the People of Ghana who foot the bills for his profligate travels abroad and the dissipation of the taxpayer’s taxes spent on his office. That will be unmistakable evidence of lack of high moral character and proven integrity, and also constitute gross misbehaviour to warrant a removal petition to remove him from office as the SP.
My information from the OSP is that the OSP as a rogue law enforcement agency after securing the arrest warrant against the suspect upon which he was declared a wanted person and a fugitive from justice on 12 February 2025 continued to collaborate with the Ghana National Central Bureau of INTERPOL of the GPS to process the OSP’s premeditated request to have Ken Ofori-Atta, the former Minister of Finance turned suspect, listed on the INTERPOL website as a fugitive from justice whether or not the OSP had sufficient evidence to eventually prosecute him for any corruption and corruption-related offences. The agenda of the OSP is one of abuse of law enforcement powers to humiliate a supposedly former powerful and untouchable Minister of Finance before the international community by placing him on the INTERPOL Red Notice and so collapse his reputation in the eyes of the international community.
The conduct of the SP raises serious matters of national security and intelligence which anybody acquainted with the tradecraft of law enforcement and national security knows. Despite the fact that the SP is independent in the performance of the functions of his office he exercises the executive authority to investigate and prosecute crimes apportioned by the Constitution to the President and delegated to the Attorney-General under Article 88 of the 1992 Constitution who is appointed and fired at will by the President. The standard practice which I have known and practiced for decades as the longest serving and only Deputy Attorney-General, an Attorney-General, and the founding SP of the OSP is that the President is briefed on every important investigation that may have national security ramifications.
This was the reason for the briefing session I held with President Akufo-Addo on Sunday 2 November 2020 on the Agyapa Royalty Transactions Report to alert him of the report to enable him to ensure the maintenance of the stability of the nation before I exercised my independent discretion in making public the results of my investigations. When the President sought to interfere with my independence as the SP I resigned my office.
Kissi Agyebeng chose not to invite Ken Ofori-Atta as Minister of Finance or Senior Presidential Advisor to investigate the allegations he now seeks to investigate. He invited Ken Ofori-Atta on 24 January 2025 by leaving an invitation at his residence when the NDC government had notice that he was abroad for medical treatment. The conduct of William Kissi Agyebeng in the handling of the Ken Ofori-Atta suspected corruption cases which I have written extensively about raises the question whether he is on a frolic of his own for some vindictive purpose associated with grievances against the suspect harboured by his businessman baron mentor of Roman Ridge or he is acting as part of the NDC’s operation ORAL with the knowledge and consent of the President to hunt down former NPP Ministers and operatives.
I also shudder to think that after revoking the INTERPOL Red Notice obtained by the OSP in 2020 against the four United Kingdom resident suspects and fugitives from justice whom William Kissi Agyebeng unlawfully travelled to the United Kingdom to interview in their respective residences, Kissi Agyebeng is now deliberately seeking to damage the NDC by collaborating with the Ghana National Central Bureau to have Ken Ofori-Atta on the INTERPOL Red Notice as a sign of the NDC’s vengeful retaliation and to prove his opportunistic loyalty to the NDC. Did Kissi Agyebeng brief the Attorney-General or President on the steps he had taken as standard practice required in such matters for purposes of the President’s executive authority in all matters likely to affect national security? I did brief President Akufo-Addo in 2020 for national security reasons by virtue of the fact that one of the suspects was a politically exposed person and the national security ramifications involved even though I did not take any instructions from him. So, nobody should tell me that Kissi Agyebeng is an island who does as he pleases and can endanger the security of the country at will. The professionals in this field acquainted with this tradecraft understand what I am getting at.
The reader who still entertains any doubt about how national security is relevant to this discourse should think critically of the fact that the Minister of Finance is the pivot around whom Chapter Thirteen of the 1992 Constitution is anchored. The Cabinet and the National Security Council cannot operate without him that is why he is also a Cabinet Minister and Member of the National Security Council, and privy to a trove of national security and intelligence material information. While serving or out of office such persons ought to be handled with decorum as they are assets foreign governments cultivate for purposes of their national security interests. This is a basic national security reason no competent national law enforcement agency will humiliate and disgrace such sought after national security assets while they are outside the country with being declared wanted persons and issuing INTERPOL Red Notices for their arrest without first briefing the President on purely national security grounds.
Ken Ofori-Atta voluntarily offered to return to Ghana after his medical treatment abroad. Any responsible law enforcement agency with in-depth knowledge of security and intelligence would have continued to cajole him to return to the country after his treatment abroad instead of humiliating him and bringing his reputation into disrepute internationally, particularly without first briefing the President as the repository of national security. The OSP has now provided legitimate and justifiable reasons for Ken Ofori-Atta to sit out his persecution in the US to preserve his health, contest the Red Notice, and fight extradition as long as Kissi Agyebeng remains the SP.
Any President who allows his law enforcement agencies to go round inviting his Ministers or former Ministers of his country who are privy to critical national security information and are temporarily outside the country with threats; and to eventually declare them as wanted fugitives from justice with publications of INTERPOL Red Notices against them is risking the stability of his country by making such aggrieved Ministers easily recruitable assets by foreign intelligence agencies and governments.
Former President John Agyekum Kufuor started the partisan retaliatory politics from 2001 under the 1992 Constitution using the process of criminal justice administration as his covert instrument in which several innocent former public officers suffered and have since suffered the physical, psychological, financial, and moral consequences of criminal trials and acquittals during the life of this Constitution. The few who were ever convicted under both the NPP and subsequent NDC governments were pardoned within a few years, underscoring the privileges of political class and the political nature of the trials. But the ordinary Ghanaian who steals one bunch of plantain to feed his hungry family out of poverty serves his full term of imprisonment. The collateral damage within the political elite has been the untimely deaths of Victor Selormey of the NDC, and Adamu Dramani Sakande of the NPP shortly after being pardoned on grounds of ill-health.
The trial of former politically appointed public officers in the court of public opinion needs to stop and I will suggest that the NDC government begins with the Ken Ofori-Atta case to have him presumed innocent and tried only in a court of law. The NDC will gain a lot of capital and reduce the polarized political environment over the years that has heightened tensions which may have security implications for the country by the Attorney-General taking over the case from the OSP under Article 88 of the Constitution and assigning it to the Ghana Police Service or the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice for professional and impartial investigation. The Attorney-General can do this because the Office of the Special Prosecutor Act, 2017 (Act 959) does not override the provisions of Article 88 of the Constitution, otherwise it will be unconstitutional.
In the interim, Ken Ofori-Atta has a right under the INTERPOL Rules to challenge the INTERPOL Red Notice through the Commission for the Control of INTERPOL Files (CCF) as being politically motivated, persecutorial in nature, and a harbinger of a prospective unfair trial in Ghana by the OSP under the 1992 Constitution. The processes from the application for the warrant or warrants of arrest from the court or courts, the media engagements and statements of the SP, William Kissi Agyebeng, and the applications submitted to the Ghana National Central Bureau resulting in the issuance of the Red Notice will be of immense assistance in formulating the challenge to the wanton abuse of power by the OSP.
Before the SP, Kissi Agyebeng, started to humiliate Ken Ofori-Atta while he was already abroad he knew that for four years the OSP could not get information pursuant to a Mutual Legal Assistant (MLA) request from the governments of the United States and the United Kingdom on one politically exposed private individual and three other persons all of British nationality or cooperation to extradite them to Ghana pursuant to INTERPOL Red Notices. Apart from trying Ken Ofori-Atta in the court of public opinion which the OSP has successfully accomplished, Kissi Agyenbeng also knew that it was going to be more difficulty to extradite Ken Ofori-Atta to Ghana on an INTERPOL Red Notice after turning him into a much sought after national security asset by foreign intelligence agencies and governments in the current geopolitical world within the next three and half years remaining of the NDC government unless he chooses to return voluntarily. Once more, the OSP has dissipated the public purse allocated to it sowing the wind and shall reap the whirlwind.
Martin A. B. K. Amidu
9 June 2025