Ofori-Atta sues OSP

A former Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, has filed a lawsuit against the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) and the Special Prosecutor (SP), Kissi Agyebeng, over the declaration by the anti-graft agency that he was a “fugitive from justice” and a “WANTED person”.

The application for the enforcement of his fundamental human rights under Article 33 of the 1992 Constitution was filed on March 13, 2025, by the former minister’s lawyer, Justice Kusi-Minkah Premo, at the Human Rights Division of the Accra High Court.

The premise of Mr Ofori-Atta’s suit is that the OSP declaring him a “WANTED” person and publishing the same were unlawful and violated his fundamental human rights to personal liberty and free movement as respectively guaranteed under Articles 14 and 21 of the 1992 Constitution.

The former minister is also of the contention that the OSP acted unfairly, capriciously and arbitrarily by declaring him “WANTED”,  which, he said, violated Articles 23 and 296 of the Constitution, and continued to act the same by refusing to remove his picture as a “WANTED” person from its website despite publishing that he had ceased to be one.

Reliefs

Among other reliefs, Mr Ofori-Atta is seeking declarations from the court that the action by the OSP was unlawful as it had no statutory powers to declare a person wanted without the permission of a court, and that it violated his fundamental human rights to personal liberty, free movement and to be treated fairly by administrative bodies.

He is further seeking declarations that the Special Prosecutor, who is a lawyer, breached the legal profession rules when he responded to letters by his lawyers through a public press briefing while the OSP had also acted capriciously, arbitrarily and unfairly for continuously keeping his picture as a “WANTED” person on its website.

The former minister is also seeking an order from the court to direct the OSP to immediately remove his picture as a “WANTED” person from the website of the OSP, and order for compensation for “unlawfully declaring the applicant “WANTED”, publishing the same on its website, and keeping his picture on the wanted list despite a statement by the OSP that he was no longer a “WANTED” person.

He is further asking the court to place an injunction on the OSP from carrying out its threat to re-declare him as a “WANTED person” and “a fugitive from justice”.
 

Background

During a press conference on February 12 this year, Mr Agyebeng announced that his outfit was currently investigating five cases of corruption and corruption-related offences in which Mr Ofori-Atta was a suspect.

Those cases included the revenue assurance contract between the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Limited (SML), the termination of the distribution loss contract between the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and Beijing Xiao Cheng Technology (BXC), and the National Cathedral project.

Mr Agyebeng declared Mr Ofori-Atta “WANTED”, describing him as a “fugitive from justice” who had “no intention of willingly returning to the jurisdiction” to honour the invitation of the OSP for investigations into some five suspected corruption cases.

While acknowledging that lawyers for the former minister had written to him about the unavailability of their client in the country for medical reasons, the Special Prosecutor accused Mr Ofori-Atta of allegedly employing tactics in order not to avail himself of an invitation dated January 24, 2025.

“Mr Ofori-Atta, you have two choices. You can either return to the jurisdiction voluntarily, or the OSP will enforce your return,” Mr Agyebeng stated.

Mr Agyebeng said lawyers for the former minister also wrote to the OSP enquiring whether or not the OSP was behind a raid on Mr Ofori-Atta’s residence on February 11 this year.

Mr Agyebeng claimed that intelligence by the OSP indicated that the raid could have been “staged”.

“Our intelligence points us to state that the purported raid on Mr Ofori-Atta’s residence was staged or, at best, an imposter action in an attempt to court disfavour for the OSP and to derail the investigation,” he said.

“OSP was aware”

Backed by documents attached to the application, Mr Ofori-Atta averred that he left the country on January 4 this year for medical reasons, stating that he had made this known to the former and current Chiefs of Staff at the presidency and that when the OSP invited him on January 22, he was already out of the country.

According to him, his lawyers had clearly communicated the above information to the OSP and were willing to assist the anti-graft agency with whatever information it needed pending his return to the country, only for the OSP to still go ahead to declare him “WANTED”.

Mr Ofori-Atta further averred that the allegation by the SP that the raid on his residence was “staged” turned out to be false when subsequent information showed that it was carried out by National Security operatives, for which the Majority Leader in Parliament apologised on behalf of the government.

Writer’s email; emma.hawkson@graphic.com.gh