THE GOVERNMENT has officially commenced the processes to have former Minister for Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, and his chef de cabine, Ernest Darko Akori, extradited to Ghana.
"On behalf of his Excellency the President of the Republic, we have taken the requisite steps to bring him to Ghana to face trial," the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Dr Dominic Akuritinga Ayine, stated.
Dr Ayine, who made this known at the Presidency in Accra yesterday, said all extradition requirements had been met and a request had officially been made to the American authorities.
"On December 10, 2025, my office transmitted the complete request to the Minister of Foreign Affairs for onward transmission to the competent authorities in the United States of America, that is, in this case, the Department of Justice of the United States.
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"At this point, it is left to the American authorities, especially the judicial authorities, to make a determination on whether a sufficient basis exists for the two accused persons to be extradited to Ghana to stand trial," Dr Ayine stated.
Unable to tell when the request would be granted by the American government, Mr Ayine expects Mr Ofori-Atta to put up a fight as he has hired "some of the top lawyers to defend him" shrug off the extradition request.
He assured that Mr Ofori-Atta would be given fair trial as stipulated in the provisions of the 1992 Constitution if Mr Ofori-Atta comes back voluntarily or extradited.
"This is his home. He should just join the next available flight and come home. Under my watch, he'll not be treated unfairly. He'll be taken through due process and be prosecuted just like any other person."
Government, Dr Ayine said, remained committed to accountability and would take all legally required steps to have Mr Ofori-Atta answer to the allegations levelled against him.
Mr Ofori-Atta and his accomplices, including Emmanuel Kofi Nti and Ammishaddai Owusu-Amoah, former Commissioner-General of the GRA, and other top officials of the GRA are facing 78 charges bordering on causing financial loss to the state, using public office for private benefit, illegal procurement, abuse of office, amongst others.
On the recovery of the proceeds of crime in other matters, Dr Ayine said the Economic and Organised Crime Office had recovered GH¢337.4 million from a criminal network comprising mostly of Chinese and Malaysians operating a ponzi scheme.
"According to official records obtained by the Economic and Organised Crime Office, the company's print ad business was described as general trading and online trading and marketing. This is how the criminal enterprise worked. The victims were permitted to purchase products online from the company's e-commerce website by paying a registration fee.
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"Once the victims signed on, they were encouraged to purchase investment packages. Those ranged from GH¢770 to GH¢9,240. The criminals developed attractive flyers to promote fraudulent investment and categorised the investment into classes," Dr Ayine explained.
He said the EOCO was living up to its mandate seeing rapid transformation in the execution of its statutory mandate.
