Former Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, has emphasized that his actions while in office were always guided by the country’s best interests.
In a message shared online, he reflected on his tenure as the nation’s longest-serving finance minister, underscoring his commitment to public service.
“As the longest-serving Finance Minister in this Republic (2017–2024) and having encountered the most far-reaching existential crises in our lifetime, I have always acted in the best interests of Ghana and Africa and will continue to do so.”
Addressing the ongoing issue with the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP), Ofori-Atta noted that the situation had significantly improved.
“We are in a much better position now. The Majority Leader apologized on the floor of Parliament for the raid on my home by national security personnel. The Special Prosecutor has rescinded his declaration and proposed a June meeting.”
Despite the difficulties surrounding the case, he remains hopeful that a resolution will be reached soon.
“I pray that the Special Prosecutor will agree to meet with my legal team so we can respond to his investigation into the now five cases, in order to resolve the situation expeditiously—well before the June appointment.”
He concluded by expressing appreciation, “I thank you for your friendship and support over the years, the professional work we have done together, and our ongoing commitment to the urgent task of building a just society and promoting our shared humanity.”
Former Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta has spoken out for the first time regarding the criminal investigation launched against him by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP), voicing his frustration over the matter.
In an open letter dated February 26, he described the situation as both perplexing and distressing, stating that he felt compelled to clarify the issues at hand.
His response comes after the OSP issued a wanted notice for him, only to later withdraw it. The investigation reportedly focuses on several financial transactions, including the Strategic Mobilisation-GRA contract, the ECG-BXC contract termination, payments related to the National Cathedral, the procurement of ambulances, and the management of the Tax Refund Account.
Amid increasing public scrutiny, the OSP later confirmed that Mr. Ofori-Atta had formally informed them of his intention to return voluntarily. Consequently, his name was removed from the wanted list, though the office warned that any failure to return as promised would result in further legal consequences.
Addressing the situation, Mr. Ofori-Atta expressed deep confusion over how events have unfolded.
“I have been in the news recently in quite a dramatic manner. I thought it important that I share with you the facts surrounding recent events and news articles concerning me and Ghana’s Special Prosecutor. I am as puzzled and dismayed, as I suspect you must be.
“I was out of the country on January 24, for medical reasons, when the Special Prosecutor invited me to an in-person meeting for Feb 10, 2025, in connection with four “corruption and corruption related cases”. I was not the originating nor implementing Minister in any of these portfolios. I immediately responded through my lawyers, indicating my willingness to have them provide him with any information he may require to aid in his investigation, given that I will be out of the country for the next few months for medical reasons.
“The Special Prosecutor rejected the offer to meet with my lawyers, insisting on a firm date for my personal attendance. Instead on February 11th, my home was raided by armed National Security operatives. The Special Prosecutor remarked that I had staged the raid on my own home and, subsequently, launched an international campaign and declared that I was a wanted “fugitive from justice”
Principal State Attorney Stella Ohene Appiah has made a firm statement, clarifying that the prosecution’s case does not contend that the purchase of lithovit liquid fertilizer by COCOBOD resulted in a decline in cocoa production between 2014 and 2016.
In a surprising revelation, the prosecutor acknowledged that former COCOBOD Chief Executive Dr. Stephen Kwabena Opuni and businessman Alhaji Seidu Agongo are facing prosecution, among others, not because the lithovit liquid fertilizer purchased and distributed to farmers failed to significantly increase cocoa production.
This disclosure by Stella Ohene Appiah stands in contrast to claims suggesting that the lithovit liquid fertilizer was substandard and that the state did not receive value for money during COCOBOD’s procurement of it, resulting in charges of causing financial loss to the state being leveled against the accused individuals.
Meanwhile, the witness, Dr. Francis Baah, who is also the former Director of the Cocoa Health and Extension Division (CHED) of COCOBOD, testified during his evidence-in-chief about the effectiveness of lithovit fertilizer, which he claimed was favored by cocoa farmers.
During cross-examination, counsel for Alhaji Seidu Agongo sought to inquire about the prosecution’s claim regarding the failure of lithovit fertilizer and its alleged impact on cocoa production.
However, Stella Ohene Appiah objected to the question, asserting that the prosecution’s case did not hinge on the decline in production due to the use of lithovit liquid fertilizer.
In response, Benson Nutsukpui, counsel for Alhaji Seidu Agongo, referenced the charge sheet, which purportedly indicated that the supplied lithovit fertilizer did not meet the specified standard and was potentially harmful.
Stella Ohene Appiah conceded that the prosecution’s concern was centered on the lack of a significant increase in cocoa yield rather than the fertilizer’s failure specifically.
The witness, Dr. Francis Baah, emphasized that attributing the rise or fall in cocoa production to a single fertilizer without a specific study or report would be unjustified. He confirmed that COCOBOD evaluates all fertilizers through the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG) to assess their impact on yield.
Subsequently, counsel for Alhaji Seidu Agongo requested the court to order the production of cocoa production records from 2012/13 to date to aid in determining whether lithovit liquid fertilizer affected cocoa production, a request supported by Dr. Opuni’s counsel, Samuel Codjoe. The prosecution did not oppose the request, and the court granted it.
The death of the last king of Chad, Idriss Deby Itno, has led more than 400 rebels to life imprisonment according to the state prosecutor.
They were found guilty in a large-scale trial of “acts of terrorism, mercenarism, recruiting young soldiers, and assaulting the head of state,” according to Mahamat El-Hadj Abba Nana, the prosecutor for the nation’s capital N’Djamena.
While 24 other suspects were found not guilty, he did not provide an exact number of those who were imprisoned, merely stating that “more than 400 were sentenced” to life in prison.
The trial opened last month behind closed doors at Klessoum prison, 20 kilometres (12 miles) southeast of the capital.
In early 2021, the country’s main rebel group, the Front for Change and Concord in Chad (FACT), launched an offensive on the north of the country from bases in Libya.
On April 20, the army announced that Marshal Deby, Chad’s iron-fisted ruler for the previous three decades, had died from wounds sustained in the fighting.
Deby died just after being declared winner of a presidential election that gave him his sixth term.
His death was announced just a day after he had been declared victor of a presidential election that gave him a sixth term in office.
He was immediately succeeded by one of his sons, General Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, who took the helm at the head of a 15-member military junta.
‘A masquerade’ –
Several defendants were also ordered to pay damages of more than $32 million to the state and $1.6 million to the ex-president’s family, said FACT lawyer Francis Lokoulde, who suggested there would be an appeal.
“It’s a masquerade that follows no law, no convention”, said FACT leader Mahamat Mahdi Ali.
“All that comes from a willingness to criminalise our struggle. The verdict is a non-event,” he said.
Defence lawyers had protested at the very short notice after the mass trial had been announced just days before it started on February 13.
Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno had promised to hold free elections within 18 months, but that deadline was extended for another two years.
Protests last October to mark the initially promised end to military rule met with a deadly crackdown.
The Chadian authorities first put the death toll in the capital at around 50, before updating that figure to 73 deaths. Opposition groups say the number is higher.
The Geneva-based World Organization against Torture (OMCT) accused the Chadian authorities of summary executions and torture.
A total of 262 people were then handed terms of between two and three years after a trial in the notorious Koro Toro prison, isolated in the desert 600 kilometres from N’Djamena.
The remote location and proceedings drew condemnation from international human rights groups.
Human Rights Watch not only denounced the mass trial but also the murders, forced disappearances and torture that preceded it.
The main leaders of Chad’s opposition now live in hiding or in exile, even though the junta lifted a suspension of several opposition parties in January.
Despite criticism of his authoritarian rule, the elder Deby was a key ally in the West’s anti-jihadist campaign in the unstable Sahel, particularly due to the relative strength of Chad’s military.
On March 25 of last year, the couple—who had been dating for six months—went to the Drawing Room wine bar after a few drinks.
A woman walked and sat down where they had been when they had left to use the jukebox.
Luke went over and asked her to move, which she did.
But then a second person sat there and when he went over to speak to her Downs marched over and asked ‘what’s going on?’.
Bronwyn and Luke were in ‘a happy relationship with few difficulties’ prior to the attack
Prosecutor Duncan Wilcock said: ‘The groups started to become abusive towards each other and someone picked up and threw a glass. A melee broke out and door staff came over to break it up.
‘A member of the door staff put [Downs] in a headlock and [Luke came over to try and get in between them and help her. It ended with him ushering her out of the venue.
‘When the pair got outside the venue the defendant told the complainant that she had left her bag inside.
‘He said he would sort it out but as he said this he realised that the defendant had clamped down onto his nose with her teeth and pulled.’
She spat the end of his nose, including nostrils, onto the floor before running off.
Minshull Street Crown Court heard Downs blacks out and ‘hits people and doesn’t know anything about it’ (Picture: Bronwyn Downs/ Cavendish Press)
Police later found her drifting in and out of consciousness.
Mr Wilcock said: ‘She said she hits people and doesn’t know anything about it. She said that her mother had something very similar.’
Luke did not support the prosecution, saying that Downs needed help rather than punishment.
Recorder Michael Blakey told her: ‘This was an unwarranted attack – a nasty attack. Perhaps you were drinking more than you can cope with.
‘The use of teeth is a weapon and the complainant has had to receive surgery as a result of this incident.
‘You know that drink and drugs don’t mix, you’ve got to take your pills but do not drink in excess once you have taken them.’
He handed her a 12-month prison sentence suspended for 16 months and must carry out 100 hours of community service.
The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) has presented its first witness in the case against President Akufo-Addo’s ex-Municipal Chief Executive (MCEs) nominee for the Juaben Municipal Assembly, Alexander Kwabena Sarfo-Kantanka.
The OSP, in May 2022, charged Alexander Kwabena Sarfo-Kantanka with 26 counts of corruption.
In a statement issued on May 24, 2022, the Special Prosecutor indicated that the charges against Sarfo-Kantanka are for corruption allegations regarding elections for his confirmation as MCE.
“The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) has charged the nominee for the position of Chief Executive of Juaben Municipal Assembly, Alexander Kwabena Sarfo-Kantanka with Twenty-Six (26) counts of corruption in respect of a public election – arising out of two public elections conducted in September and November 2021 for the confirmation or otherwise of his nomination,” portion of the statement read.
In a tweet shared on Tuesday (October 20), the OSP said that its first witness presented his testimony during trials in court on the same day.
“The Trial of former MCE Nominee for Juaben, Alexander Sarfo Kantanka came off today at the High Court, Kumasi. Prosecution led the first witness Simon Kwasi Adjei to give evidence. He was crossed examined by Counsel for the accused person,” parts of the OSP’s tweet read.
It added that the hearing had been adjourned to Thursday, October 27, 2022.
Read the tweet from the OSP below:
Mr. Sarfo-Kantanka has been charged with twenty-six (26) counts of corruption. The charges are in respect of a public election – arising out of two public elections conducted in September and November 2021 for the confirmation or otherwise of his nomination.
— Office of the Special Prosecutor-Ghana (@ospghana) October 20, 2022
Prosecutors told an Accra Circuit Court that it is false that the embattled founder of Heavenway Champion International Ministry, Evangelist Mama Pat, popularly known as Nana Agradaa, voluntarily turned herself in.
The former fetish priestess was in court over an alleged new scam after scores of her church members cried foul recently about an advertised money-doubling service that did not go as planned.
After many calls for her arrest, the police began investigations into the matter and on Sunday, October 9, 2022, she was arrested.
Making her first appearance in court on Monday, October 10, 2022, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Maxwell Oppong told the court that they had to block all access to Nana Agradaa’s hideouts upon intelligence it received.
He explained further that it was only because of this that the accused was forced to report herself to the police, knowing very well that she had no fixed place of abode.
A report by The Chronicle newspaper said that the police “virtually had to block the airport to prevent the accused from taking a flight out of the country.”
On how they arrested her, the prosecutor told the court that they had to resort to tracking her phone because she was not available in all of the places they thought she would be.
The video purported to be the genesis of Agradaa’s new scam:
A report shared by GhanaWeb on Saturday, October 8, 2022, showed how scores of people who went to her church, Heavenway Champion International Ministry, were crying foul in what they described as a scam by the repented woman.
In several short video clips that have since gone viral, a number of the victims were seen running away from the church building of Evangelist Mama Pat and raising alarm that they had been deceived and scammed.
GhanaWeb’s further checks showed that the people were at the church in their numbers on the day because the repented priestess had earlier advertised through her television channel that she was going to give out monies to people.
She is also alleged to have advertised that she would double monies that are brought to her church, Heavenway Champion International Ministry, on the day.
GhanaWeb eventually sighted the said video that advertised the church service, resulting in the alleged scam.
In the one-minute, fifty-six seconds video from her TV station shared by a Facebook user, the repented fetish priestess is seen calling on people to throng her church on October 7, 2022.
“This month is spiritual transformation month and that is why Heavenway Champion is donating 3 billion in the church. Come this Friday for the all night. If you want money for a job, if you need rent money, startup money, you need money to take care of your health, so, if you miss this Friday all night, then you are really going to miss out,” she said in Twi.
A 31-year-old farmer, who assaulted a mobile money Vendor and snatched his handbag containing money has been sentenced to12 months’ imprisonment in hard labour by the Enchi District Magistrate court.
Bernard Forson pleaded guilty to assault and stealing and the court convicted him on his own plea.
The Prosecutor, Police Detective Inspector Joseph Kwadwo Agyare, told the court, presided over by Mr Eric Baah Boateng, that the complainant and the convict lived at Adjoum in the Aowin Municipality.
He said on September 10, 2022, at about 1723 hours, Forson called the complainant on the phone and invited him to his house to transfer money to someone.
Inspector Agyare said when the complainant arrived, the convict directed him to send a cash amount of GHS3,000.00 to one Faustina Mamudu through the number 0555306931.
Prosecution said the complainant refused to carry out the transaction and instead left to attend to another customer because he knew the convict did not have that kind of money.
Inspector Agyare said the same day the convict called the complainant while at his backyard and gave him GHS80.00 to transfer it to the same person.
The complainant again failed to carry out that transaction because he felt Forson had called some fraudsters and therefore attempted to leave, but he attacked him and, in the process, bit his cheek and snatched his handbag containing money.
The complainant shouted for help and the convict sensing danger took to his heels but was arrested by the neighborhood watch dog committee at Adjoum and handed over to the police in Enchi.
A police medical form was issued to the complainant to seek medical attention, the prosecutor added.
He said the convict was subsequently re-arrested and was charged with the offence after investigations.
