Veteran journalist Elizabeth Akua Ohene and former Minister of Finance Ken Ofori-Atta

Veteran journalist Elizabeth Akua Ohene has given details of how the security officials who raided the home of former Minister of Finance Ken Ofori-Atta supposedly ransacked the former minister's home.

According to Elizabeth Ohene, a former chairperson of the board of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) and former Minister of State, the security officials, led by NDC security operative Richard Jakpa, left nothing untouched at Ofori-Atta’s home.

She indicated that the security officials, without a warrant, turned the former minister’s home upside down, searching every corner of his house.

“In the year of our Lord 2025, 33 years into the longest stretch of constitutional rule we have ever had, armed soldiers are led by a man of no publicly determined official status into the home of a former finance minister.

“They rudely brush aside the staff, enter the house, and proceed to conduct a hostile and illegal search,” the former Minister of State wrote in an editorial published on thebftonline.com.

She added, “They go through kitchen and cutlery drawers, fridges, freezers, cupboards, closets, underneath beds, books, documents, plates, pots and pans, clothes, and linen. They take the car keys, thoroughly ransack the cars, and leave the people in the house thoroughly shaken and traumatised.”

She drew comparisons between the raid on Ofori-Atta's home and the search of the home of the late former President, Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings, after his failed military takeover on May 15, 1979.

Elizabeth Ohene, who indicated she was at the home of the Rawlingses with former First Lady Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, who was there alone with her newborn baby, narrated how she was able to stop military officers from searching the home without a warrant.

“I took a deep breath, took in the situation, and came outside wholly, closing the door behind me instead of standing in the halfway-open door. I asked the officer if he had a search warrant and if I could see it before I let him into the house. The officer looked a bit startled, started to say something, changed his mind, turned his face to look at his two colleagues, and then said to me he didn’t have a search warrant. I told him he couldn’t come in to search the place without a warrant.

“He took a deep breath and asked me if I knew what had been happening in the country that day. I said yes, I knew. ‘And you know that the person responsible lives here,’ he said. I nodded and said to him: ‘Please, officer, don’t let us use illegal means to fight illegal activities. You must be on the straight and narrow if you represent the law.’ He stared at me silently, turned around, walked to his colleagues, and they went into their car and drove off,” she said.

She wondered how security officials could raid the home of a person in this day and age without any warrant when, in the days of a military regime, officers acted professionally.

“Back in 1979, I said on a GTV programme to Mike Eghan that where we were as a country at that time, there was nowhere else to go but up; we couldn’t sink any lower.

“I wonder where we are today,” she concluded her piece.

Background:

On Wednesday, February 12, 2025, the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP), while updating the public on its ongoing investigations at a press conference in Accra, declared Ken Ofori-Atta wanted.

The Special Prosecutor, Kissi Agyebeng, declared Ofori-Atta a fugitive wanted for corruption and corruption-related offences in a number of cases his office was investigating, including the reduction contract between ECG and Beijing Jao, procurement over the National Cathedral, contracts awarded by the Health Ministry to Service Ghana Auto Limited/Ambulances, and the SML-GRA deal.

He accused the former minister of orchestrating a recently reported raid on his residence by alleged military personnel to discredit the OSP.

The raid and the wanted notice against Ofori-Atta were heavily debated in Ghana’s Parliament.

Members of the Minority Caucus—New Patriotic Party (NPP) MPs—slammed the use of the military to raid Ofori-Atta’s home, while their colleagues in the Majority Caucus argued that the previous NPP government did worse.

The leader of the Minority Caucus, Mahama Ayariga, confirmed that the raid did happen.

The leader of the Majority Caucus subsequently apologised to Ofori-Atta and the public over the raid.

BAI/EK

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