The reported detention in The Hague of Ghanaian MP O.K. Frimpong, and the commentary surrounding it, should force Ghana into a moment of painful self-reflection. Not merely about extradition law or international cooperation, but about a much bigger and more dangerous issue: the rapidly deteriorating credibility of Ghana’s security and prosecutorial institutions.
The central issue is trust. Or more accurately, the growing lack of it. According to a Joy News report, respected lawyer and legal commentator Amanda Clinton is the latest among analysts to express concern about heightened global scrutiny of Ghana’s due process.
She suspects that concerns about Ghana’s reliability and politicisation may have complicated matters surrounding the extradition process for the Majority MP who is in custody in Europe. If true, that is deeply embarrassing for a country that once prided itself on being one of Africa’s most respected constitutional democracies.
But honestly, can the world be blamed for becoming cautious? Over the last year, Ghana’s law enforcement and national security architecture have increasingly projected the image of institutions driven less by professional criminal justice standards and more by political theatre, propaganda, and public humiliation.
Nothing illustrates this decline better than the treatment of former Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta.
Let us remember the facts. In January 2025, during the transition period, Mr. Ofori-Atta officially informed the Chief of Staff that he was travelling to the United States for medical review.
This was not some invented excuse. This was a man who nearly lost his life to COVID-19 complications and whose physical condition had visibly deteriorated over the years. Ghanaians vividly remember that during the presentation of the 2021 Budget, his speech had to be read on his behalf because he was in the US receiving treatment.
Yet while receiving treatment at the Mayo Clinic in the United States in early 2025, his private residence in Accra was dramatically raided by approximately fifteen-armed National Security operatives.
Why? Apparently, they believed they would uncover hidden cash, boxes of currency or some cinematic treasure trove of corruption proceeds. Disgraceful! This is what happens when governments begin believing their own propaganda.
The absurdity did not end there. A similar operation targeted the residence of the former Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr Ernest Addison. Again, the apparent expectation was that boxes of cash would somehow be discovered hidden in private homes like scenes from a badly written political thriller on Netflix.
This is no longer professional law enforcement. It is performative governance. A government that came into office on a trailer-load of lies against government officials, like Ken Ofori-Atta and Dr Addison.
More disturbing was the conduct of the Office of the Special Prosecutor under Kissi Agyebeng. At the very time the OSP was publicly communicating with Mr. Ofori-Atta’s lawyers regarding its request for his cooperation, and fully aware that he was outside the jurisdiction for medical treatment, the OSP suddenly declared him a “fugitive.”
That single, crazy act may go down as one of the most reckless prosecutorial decisions in Ghana’s recent democratic history. A fugitive?
How exactly does a man become a fugitive when state authorities know precisely where he is, are actively communicating with his lawyers, and are aware he is undergoing treatment abroad?
The contradiction was breathtaking. What made the situation even more bizarre was the glaring inconsistency in prosecutorial behaviour.
This same Special Prosecutor once proudly announced that, in 2024, he quietly travelled to the United Kingdom to interview a person of interest in the Airbus matter. That person was the younger brother of former President John Mahama.
Quiet professionalism for an unknown entity like the brother of a former president and such ridiculous abuse of power against a man of international standing whose record as Ghana’s longest serving finance minister stands?
Why could the OSP not simply travel to the United States to interview Ken Ofori-Atta if cooperation was truly the objective? Why the media circus? Why declare a sick man a fugitive? Why the dramatic declarations? Why the global humiliation campaign?
The answer increasingly appears obvious. The objective was not merely an investigation. It was reputational destruction. It can only be one of two things, or both: that the SP had some personal scores to settle with Mr. Ofori-Atta and/or he was doing the bidding of the apostles of ORAL to win the favours of the new government.
And, this is where Ghana made a catastrophic strategic mistake. By attempting to weaponise international law enforcement tools for domestic political messaging, Ghana has seriously damaged international confidence in its own institutions.
The misuse or perceived misuse of INTERPOL mechanisms is particularly damaging. Most people do not understand that over 85% of INTERPOL Red Notices are non-public. Serious law enforcement agencies typically prefer quiet operational efficiency. A suspect is monitored discreetly and, if necessary, intercepted quietly during travel.
Public exposure is usually the exception, not the rule. Yet in the case of Ken Ofori-Atta, Ghana chose maximum publicity. Press conferences. Media briefings. Public denunciations. A globally visible Red Notice, which was eventually overturned by INTERPOL after scrutiny of the scores of charges finally laid against the former finance minister.
That decision to declare Mr. Ofori-Atta a fugitive fundamentally altered the nature of the case. It transformed what should have been a legal process into a political spectacle visible to the entire world.
Ironically, had the OSP behaved discreetly and professionally, Mr Ofori-Atta may never even have known an INTERPOL process had been initiated. If he travelled internationally, he could have quietly faced questioning at an airport somewhere under standard international cooperation procedures.
Instead, Ghana chose noise over professionalism. The result? International embarrassment for both the victim and the country. And, perhaps most dangerously, international skepticism.
Foreign law enforcement agencies and judicial authorities are now likely to engage future Ghanaian requests with increased caution, especially where the target is politically exposed or associated with a previous administration.
That loss of credibility has serious consequences. Extradition cooperation depends heavily on confidence that due process, fairness, and institutional neutrality will be respected. Once a country develops a reputation for politicising criminal justice, every future request becomes suspect.
Indeed, it is entirely possible that the mechanism reportedly used to arrest the MP in The Hague was itself a non-public INTERPOL process initiated quietly by the United States.
If so, the contrast becomes devastatingly clear. Serious law enforcement is usually quiet. Political theatre is loud. And Ghana, sadly, increasingly appears addicted to the latter.
A nation that once served as a model of democratic maturity in Africa must be careful not to slide into the dangerous territory where criminal investigations become instruments of political intimidation and public vengeance.
Once trust in law enforcement collapses internationally, rebuilding it is extraordinarily difficult. Sadly, Ghana is dangerously close to crossing that line.
By Dr. Kofi Omintinming Apesemaka
