The Chief Executive Officer of the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC), Ing. Kwadwo Twum Boafo, has urged former Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta, currently in self-imposed exile, to return to Ghana and submit to the judicial process.
In an interview with Accra-based GHOne, Ing. Boafo advised Mr. Ofori-Atta to return voluntarily and make himself available to the authorities.
He stated that the Office of the Special Prosecutor’s (OSP) investigation into Mr. Ofori-Atta is not unprecedented, noting that several appointees of the Mills/Mahama administration (2009–2016) underwent similar scrutiny.
Ing. Twum Boafo stated that, having supervised the country’s economy for seven years, the former Finance Minister definitely has some questions to answer on his stewardship and therefore should avail himself for the process.
He (Ken Ofori-Atta) has a lot of cases to answer on how he steered this economy. People will want to know and I would have wished that he came back willingly to answer the questions. Those same questions were posed to Seth Tekper and he didn’t run. Seth Tekper was here, he didn’t run,” he said.
Ing. Twum Boafo urged patients from Ghanaians for the Office of the Special Prosecutor and Attorney General as they strive to get Ken Ofori-Atta extradited to face justice.
Having been involved in some cases of extradition between Ghana and the United States of America, Ing. Twum Boafo stated that the process usually drags and therefore patience is imperative.
“The OSP is working on the Attorney General’s department to make sure they have a case that they can present to the US authorities. That is not easy because even though if we have a mutual legal agreement with the US, the process drags. In the case of the money launderers that they took to the US, it took six years. They had to come and present a case to our judges here.
“Our judges, rightly so, will scrutinize extradition requests to the tee because no country is happy to extrude its citizens without putting a fine tooth comb through the evidence. There are several layers through which that request go and that end of the day, a judge must determine if that must happen,”he said.
In January 2025, the OSP identified Ken Ofori-Atta as a suspect in a number of corruption-related cases, including alleged irregularities in contracts with Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Limited (SML), expenditures related to the National Cathedral project, and issues in health and tax refund operations.
He was first declared a “fugitive from justice” in February 2025 after failing to honour repeated summonses by the OSP.
Subsequently, his lawyers requested that his name be removed from the wanted list, promising he would return.
In June 2025, after he again failed to appear before the OSP on the agreed date, his fugitive status was reinstated and the OSP indicated it would proceed with extradition steps and an Interpol Red Notice.