Raid on Ken Ofori-Atta’s house: Majority, Minority MPs divided over legality of act

The Majority and Minority members of Parliament engaged in a heated debate last Wednesday over the legality of the raid by armed security operatives at the private residence of the former Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, last Tuesday.

The lengthy debate saw Minority MPs arguing fiercely that the raid on Mr Ofori-Atta’s home was unlawful and must be condemned since the operatives did not have any warrant to conduct a search.

They argued that Mr Ofori-Atta had put the state on notice of his absence from the jurisdiction to seek medical treatment, a reason it was wrong for armed military men to raid his home and terrorise his children.

But the Majority MPs said the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) had levelled some charges against Mr Ofori-Atta and he must be allowed to answer them.

In their view, no minister of state, as a public official, should be afraid of accountability if they performed their duties with clean hands while in office.

Caution

The debate was sparked by a statement read by the First Deputy Minority Whip, Habib Iddrisu, on the floor to draw attention to the unlawful raid of the former minister’s residence after the OSP had declared him “a wanted fugitive”.

Even before Mr Iddrisu could read the statement, the Majority Leader, Mahama Ayariga, persistently objected to the Second Deputy Speaker, Andrew Asiamah Amoako, not to allow him to do so.

He warned that reading the statement would generate commentaries that would provoke debate in clear violation of the Standing Orders and damage the reputation of Mr Ofori-Atta, who was not present in the Chamber to defend himself.

However, the Minority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, urged the Speaker to allow the statement to be read.

Accountability 

Soon after Mr Habib had put out the statement, the Minister of Energy, Mr John Jinapor, countered it, citing a media report dated July 27, 2017, in which five AK 47 gun-wielding national security operatives raided his house in search of documents related to the controversial $580 million AMERI energy deal, which was approved by Parliament.

He said the operatives went to his house and banged on his door, creating “fear and panic that sent my six-year-old children into a state of hysteria”.

“We had members here who never commented on it and I commend Prof. Mike Oquaye on that day when he stood up and ruled that what they (operatives) were doing was wrong,” he said.

The MP recounted how the operatives took his phone and laptops, which they sent to the United Kingdom to investigate him, narrating how he was called to give his password when they could not access his phone.

Undemocratic

In a counter, former Defence Minister, Dominic Nitiwul, said the operatives that raided Mr Jinapor’s home were “not soldiers but policemen”.

“That is what a democracy is and my brother you do not use soldiers to raid somebody’s home in a democracy, especially when that person has told you that I am not in the country and I would report when I get back,” he said.

He also recounted how armed military personnel trailed his movement recently to Parliament in an attempt to seize his vehicle.

Notice

Wading into the argument, Mr Afenyo-Markin told the House that on January 2, 2025, Mr Ofori-Atta wrote to the then Chief of Staff that he needed to travel to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, USA, for some medical procedure.

He said after President John Mahama had taken office, the former minister again wrote to the current Chief of Staff in a letter dated January 22, 2025, indicating that he would be absent from Ghana for the same purpose and attached a letter from the hospital that he was going to seek treatment.

He said the OSP wrote to Ofori-Atta on January 24, 2025, and Mr Ofori-Atta instructed his lawyers to let the OSP know that he was out of the jurisdiction seeking medical treatment.

“Mr Speaker, what happened yesterday by state security operatives must be condemned by all of us,” he said, recalling that when the current Energy Minister suffered the same ordeal, the former Speaker condemned such an act.