The President of the Republic of Ghana has publicly appealed to former finance minister – Ken Ofori-Atta to return back to Ghana and cooperate with the relevant state authorities over the charges leveled against him to clear his name as purported. The President on 17th July, 2026 during his Resetting Tour in the Volta Region asserted this statement as part of his engagement with the citizens of Ho in the premises of the Ho Technical University.
He mentioned that, by virtue of when Ofori-Atta held such a sensitive position as a finance minister for almost the end of their regime in 8 years, it got to a point where his own members of parliament (about 80 of them) even signed an application for the then President to remove him from his position. In which, he also replied to that termination letter and said – “He is the father of children and can never run away or leave his children behind”.Therefore, the President echoing this statement of his, added that, if Ghanaians are indeed your children as you rightly stated before, then father we are begging you, come back home and your children are calling you to come back home”. However, just the act of fleeing to another’s country to the extent of even securing citizenship there, to avoid accountability in your own country, will simply imply that you are guilty of the charges or crimes leveled against you, said the President. For that reason, he echoed that, if Ofori-Atta feels he is a man of principles and believes to have done nothing wrong, then he should man up or take responsibility to obliged to the call of his presence been needed in the country to come give accountability at the Office of Special Prosecutor (OSP), as announced earlier.
The President also used the opportunity to address that his government demanding accountability from previous appointees does not mean, he and his officials want to habor malice against their opponents or just enjoys or takes pride in prosecuting people if they have done no wrongs. Rather, it is for the betterment of the country to attain certain level of developments to bring comfort to its citizens. Since most of these monies that were missing or looted by previous appointees would have gone a long way to bring huge developments such as – good roads, hospitals, schools into the country and might have even extended some relieve on the citizens as well. Also, he believes that the prosecutorial system, judicial system, and investigative system grants enough leverage for people or offenders of the law, to have justice; and so, nobody or out of their political vendetta or malice prosecute anyone if you have not done anything to warrant such. That is to say, if such people or anyone has done no wrongs but then been prosecuted maliciously, the courts also has mandate to be able to uphold their rights and set them free. As a result, the prosecutorial processes ongoing for some individuals believed to have been offenders of the law should not be assumed or concluded that his government is just trying to hound other political opponents. This is because, his government and those in charge of addressing crimes only proceeds on the basis of evidences received or provided; of which it is weighed to see if it is sufficient to demand prosecution of the purported people involved. However, he also mentioned that there were many times some reports or evidences that was even been brought to them about certain people were discarded due to the fact that, when authorities in charge weighed or cross-checked those evidences or reports, it turned out not to be substantive to be proceeded to court for justice to prevail. Therefore, authorities in charge usually inform the complainants of the necessary information to further be investigation to lead to prosecution of such individuals. That is to say, those evidences are then discarded to the complainant and he/she is asked to further investigate and bring a better or stronger evidence for prosecution to be done. That is why, most times, cases that are proceeded to courts delays, because the whole system of accountability takes time. Since, authorities need to be thorough on the matter and so, by the time Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO) and OSP comes to arrest somebody, it shows that months of work has already taken place in reviewing the evidence provided, said Prez Mahama.
Notwithstanding, he also stated emphatically that his government will still and continue to assure that accountability becomes the number one hallmark under his governance. Having said this, he clarified also that – the sword does not cut only one way, and so if he finds evidence that any of his current appointees or persons holding positions in government institutions under his tenure abuses the public trust, he won’t hesitate to also hold them accountable or prosecute them. Emphasizing that, the same way the sword is cutting that way, it will definitely also cut this way too, if found guilty, he cautioned.
Last but not least, he also expressed to the people of Ho that, his administration will continue pursue accountability because he believes accountability or holding people accountable for crimes cuts down corruption and also reduces the amount of waste as far as public resources are concerned. Citing that, the country will then also not be interested in going to borrow from the International Monetary Funds (IMF). For instance, in just one and half year without going to IMF, his administration has managed to discipline themselves regarding public funds and has succeeded in utilizing the same domestic revenue to fund BIG PUSH projects of about USD13.8million just for last year road reconstruction projects. Whilst this year, they are funding about USD30billion for BIG PUSH projects, using this same domestic revenues generated; and then referenced that, indeed all these funds were gotten as a result of discipline, commitment and dedication from appointees and members involved.