Private legal practitioner and UPSA Law School lecturer, Justice Abdulai, has expressed serious concerns over the Special Prosecutor’s decision to declare former Finance Minister Kenneth Nana Yaw Ofori-Atta wanted.
Reacting to the announcement during an interview with ABC News GH, Abdulai admitted, “I did not expect this at all. I was completely aback by the entire announcement,” and emphasized that the situation could have been handled with more care.
He added that while fighting corruption should be taken seriously, such drastic measures may not always be the best course of action.
Abdulai acknowledged the importance of holding high-ranking individuals like Ofori-Atta accountable, but argued that the Special Prosecutor should have considered other options.
“The Special Prosecutor could have worked with the lawyers and security agencies,” he suggested, pointing out that even with a medical report in place, more respect should have been afforded to the former minister’s circumstances.
He also questioned the effectiveness of declaring Ofori-Atta wanted, saying that it might have been a “desperate measure” that could have been avoided with better collaboration and diplomacy.
The legal expert concluded that while anti-corruption efforts are crucial, the current approach risks undermining the efforts to build a stronger institutional framework for tackling corruption.
“We all owe it to ourselves the responsibility of building quality institutional frameworks to fight corruption,” he said, reiterating that a more thoughtful, collaborative approach would have been far more beneficial.
