Ghana’s Ambassador to the United States, Victor Emmanuel Smith, has revealed that Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, a cousin to former Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta, called him via phone to tell him the former minister was willing to return home and defend himself but was worried he would be mistreated.
Speaking on the Saturday, January 17, 2026, edition of TV3’s Key Points programme, Ambassador Smith first stated that associates of the former minister had also expressed similar concerns.
He then disclosed that it was the private legal practitioner who called him.
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 people attacking him. We don’t behave like that,” he added.
The Office of the Special Prosecutor has formally charged Mr Ofori-Atta with 78 counts of corruption and related offences, 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.
Currently, he is being detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and has been held at the Caroline Detention Facility in Virginia, awaiting a court hearing on January 20, 2026, which could result in deportation.
