High Court grants OSP four more weeks to serve Ken Ofori-Atta with summons in US

The High Court in Accra has given the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) four more weeks to complete efforts to serve former Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta and his former Chief of Cabinet, Ernest Darko Akore, with summons in the United States.

The case, involving Ofori-Atta and seven others, has consequently been adjourned to October 29, 2026.

At Tuesday’s sitting, September 29, the prosecution told the court that a team that travelled to the United States to engage the US Department of Justice over the service of the summons was yet to return to Ghana.

The prosecution therefore asked the court for additional time to enable it to complete the necessary processes, a request the court granted.

Ofori-Atta is facing 28 counts of corruption and corruption-related offences arising from the OSP’s investigation into revenue assurance arrangements between Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Limited (SML) and the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA).

The other accused persons are former GRA Commissioners-General Emmanuel Kofi Nti and Ammishaddai Owusu-Amoah; former Commissioners of the Customs Division Isaac Crentsil and Kwadwo Damoah; Ernest Darko Akore; SML Chief Executive Officer Evans Adusei; and SML.

The OSP alleges that the accused persons were involved in corruption and corruption-related offences connected to the SML-GRA revenue assurance arrangements, which allegedly resulted in financial losses of more than GH¢1.4 billion.

Those accused persons who have been served with summons and have appeared before the court have pleaded not guilty to the charges.

At the previous hearing on August 27, 2026, the case was adjourned to September 29, 2026, to allow the prosecution time to serve Ofori-Atta and Akore with the necessary processes in the United States.

The case is part of a wider set of prosecutions by the OSP that had been affected by legal challenges to the Office’s prosecutorial powers.

Proceedings in a number of OSP cases had been stalled since April 2026 following a High Court ruling that questioned the Office’s authority to prosecute independently of the Attorney-General.

The Supreme Court subsequently, in a unanimous decision, upheld the constitutional validity of the Office of the Special Prosecutor Act, 2017 (Act 959).

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