{"id":25697,"date":"2026-01-15T19:28:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T19:28:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/25697\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T19:28:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T19:28:07","slug":"no-victory-has-been-won","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/25697\/","title":{"rendered":"No victory has been won"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"article-123\">A member of the legal team representing former Minister of Finance Ken Ofori-Atta, Frank Davies, has slammed the Minister of Foreign Affairs, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanaweb.com\/GhanaHomePage\/people\/person.php?ID=2383\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa<\/a> over claims that the United States has assured Ghana it will not interfere in extradition processes.<\/p>\n<p>Reacting to the minister\u2019s remarks on JoyNews on January 14, 2026, Davies dismissed suggestions that Ghana had secured any major breakthrough.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanaweb.com\/GhanaHomePage\/NewsArchive\/US-will-not-block-extradition-of-Ofori-Atta-Sedina-Tamakloe-Ablakwa-2017226\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">US will not block extradition of Ofori-Atta, Sedina Tamakloe &#8211; Ablakwa<\/a><\/p>\n<p>He emphasised that the words used by US officials do not amount to a guarantee that Ofori-Atta will be returned to Ghana.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c\u2026 If you all understand without prejudice, I wonder why the foreign minister will be waving a white handkerchief as if any significant victory has been coped. Without prejudice means without prejudice,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Davies explained that extradition is governed by strict legal rules and international law, not political assurances.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGenerally, no extradition requires the involvement of the country where the person is located (sic) and here is why. There are sovereignty issues. A country has jurisdiction over people and territory within its borders. So, any person of interest, suspect or accused person could be picked up,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n<p>The legal practitioner noted that extradition usually follows treaties and agreements between countries and must go through due process.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe requested state needs to verify the request and ensure that it meets or conforms with legal standards. This is what the foreign affairs minister has to understand,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n<p>According to him, the statement attributed to the US ambassador simply reflects respect for legal procedures, not approval of extradition.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo, the mere fact that the American ambassador said they will not stand in the way of Ghana, it means that he, the ambassador, is cognizant of the fact that there has to be proper due process,\u201d Davies insisted.<\/p>\n<p>He also pointed out that there are exceptions under international law, including provisional arrest and Interpol Red Notices, but said these do not apply in Ofori-Atta\u2019s case.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd there are significant exceptions. There&#8217;s something known as provisional arrest. Some treaties allow for temporary detention without prior approval.  There&#8217;s also Interpol Red Notice, which we are all conversant with now in this country that is meant to facilitate international cooperation,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n<p>He added, \u201cBut of course, you know that in Ken\u2019s particular situation, the Red Notice was pulled down because it didn&#8217;t meet the required standards and requirements. There&#8217;s also what we call unilateral action. A country might arrest someone without formal extradition but this is rare. It happens rarely because it risks violating international law.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanaweb.com\/GhanaHomePage\/NewsArchive\/Ofori-Atta-has-worsened-his-case-I-feel-sorry-for-him-Kwesi-Pratt-2017321\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Ofori-Atta has worsened his case, I feel sorry for him &#8211; Kwesi Pratt<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Davies questioned the decision by the foreign minister to publicly discuss his engagement with the US ambassador, warning that it could mislead the public.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c\u2026 I cannot comprehend why the foreign minister would decide to put this in the public domain as if tomorrow Ken would be removed from America and brought down to Ghana\u2026 I didn&#8217;t think that it was any useful for the foreign minister to come and say what he said after having a personal conversation with the American ambassador,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n<p>MAG\/EB<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;To hell with them&#8217; \u2013 Professor Frimpong Boateng fires back at NPP<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanaweb.com\/GhanaHomePage\/television\/?video=136748\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">TWI NEWS<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A member of the legal team representing former Minister of Finance Ken Ofori-Atta, Frank Davies, has slammed the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21236,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[79],"class_list":{"0":"post-25697","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ghana","8":"tag-ghana"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}