President John Dramani Mahama has said that the allegations against former Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta will affect his reputation and that of his children and grandchildren if he fails to return to Ghana to face trial.
Speaking during the Reset Tour and Citizens’ Engagement in the Volta Region on Friday, July 17, President Mahama urged Ofori-Atta to return to Ghana, assuring that he will have fair trial.
“…whatever it is, if he is brought back, he would have justice. We believe in the Judicial system of our country. He will have the best of lawyers to defend him.
“But if he doesn’t come back, then it means he leaves a cloud of doubt over his head forever, and over his children and grandchildren. So, we’ll see how things play out,” he said.
The President recalled Ofori-Atta’s own description of himself as a “father of children”, noting that he should display such fatherly responsibility and return to Ghana.
“You held the most sensitive position as finance minister and at the point when your own members of parliament, 80 of them signed an application that the president should remove you, you said something historic, you said you are like the father of children and that you can’t run away and leave your children,” he stated.
He added: “So if we Ghanaians are your children, we are calling you, we are begging you, father come back, your children are calling you to come back.”
He questioned why anyone who believed they had committed no crime would leave the country and would not want to return to address the allegations against him.
“If you are a man of principle and you believe you have done nothing wrong, I don’t see why you should flee your own country,” he said.
President Mahama also said the extradition process must follow the law and respect the rights of the person involved.
He explained that because extradition involves another jurisdiction, the process requires the submission of a formal request and a determination by a court in the country where the individual is located.
“The person has a right to take a lawyer, go before a judge, and if he doesn’t want to come, he will argue against coming. And your point too must be made that he is needed because he has done this and that,” he noted.
President Mahama stated that the Attorney General’s Department had already taken initiated steps to seek Ofori-Atta’s extradition, including filing the necessary application and providing additional documents requested.
“The Attorney General’s Department has done its best, it filed the application, there are some additional documents that were asked for that it is filing and eventually it will all go before an American judge to make a decision,” he said.
The former Finance Minister is currently outside Ghana while the Office of the Special Prosecutor has charged him with corruption and corruption-related offences.
