Ghana’s Ambassador to the United States, Victor Emmanuel Smith, has disclosed that Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, a cousin to former Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta, contacted him to voice concerns over potential harassment or unfair treatment if Ofori-Atta returns to Ghana.
Speaking on the Saturday, January 17, 2026, edition of TV3’s Key Points program, Ambassador Smith clarified that the anxiety was not his personal view but stemmed directly from a phone call he received from Otchere-Darko, whom he described as a relative of Ofori-Atta.
“… he thinks that is a worry that his cousin has. And I said, Who’s going to harass him? He has to go through a process and the Attorney General told me that he will be taken through the due process like anybody else,” Smith stated in the interview.
“I had a call from Gabriel [Gabby] Otchere-Darko. He expressed that worry, and I assured him that you have to go through the due process. I mean, everybody goes through the due process of law, so there’s not going to be like people are going to attack him. We don’t behave like that,” he added.
Ambassador Smith stressed that Ofori-Atta’s current situation has been exacerbated by his own actions, including being evasive regarding an arrest warrant from the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP).
“So that anxiety of the fear and everything was expressed by Gabby Otchere-Darko,” he stressed.
The revelations come amid ongoing legal challenges facing Ofori-Atta, who has been declared a fugitive by the OSP since February 2025 in connection with multiple corruption investigations. The former finance minister faces 78 counts of corruption and related offenses, including allegations tied to a GHS 125 million contract between the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and Strategic Mobilisation Limited (SML), the National Cathedral Project, ambulance procurement, and electricity company contracts.
Ofori-Atta left Ghana in January 2025 for medical treatment at the Mayo Clinic in the US and has since failed to appear for OSP questioning, leading to an Interpol Red Notice issued in June 2025. Ghana formally requested his extradition from the US in December 2025.
He was detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on January 6, 2026, in Washington, DC, for overstaying his visa and is currently held at the Caroline Detention Facility in Virginia, awaiting a court hearing on January 20, 2026, which could result in deportation.