Lead Convenor of Arise Ghana, Bernard Mornah, has accused former Minister of Finance Ken Ofori-Atta of causing severe economic hardship in Ghana.
He has therefore called for his immediate return from the United States to face investigations and possible prosecution.
Mornah made these remarks on Tuesday, January 20, 2026, during a protest by the group at the United States Embassy in Accra, aimed at pressuring US authorities to facilitate the former minister’s return to Ghana.
According to him, the policies implemented under Ofori-Atta’s leadership at the Finance Ministry had devastating consequences for many Ghanaians.
“Ken Ofori-Atta has caused a lot of economic miscarriage to our nation. He has devastated many people. People have died out of the harsh economic policies that he has brought,” he said.
He further accused the former minister of misleading former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on key economic decisions, particularly the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme and the country’s return to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
“President Akufo-Addo, on hindsight, has regretted that Ken Ofori-Atta misled him to go and bring what we call the domestic debt exchange. Ken Ofori-Atta lied to all of us that he was not going to go to the IMF if the electronic transfer levy bill was passed into an act. Soon after that bill was passed, Ken Ofori-Atta and the [former] president of Ghana speedily ran to the IMF.”
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Mornah described these actions as a betrayal of public trust, adding that state resources were allegedly used for private benefit.
“That is economic inservice to the people of Ghana. Within Ken Ofori-Atta’s regime, we have seen that state resources were used for their personal gain, including taking COVID-19 resources and giving it to Enterprise Insurance and other companies that belong to them, without accounting for anything or without any beneficiary,” he added.
He also cited ongoing investigations by several state institutions as evidence that the former minister must return to Ghana to face due process.
“The Office of the Special Prosecutor has listed about 78 charges against Ken Ofori-Atta. The Economic and Organised Crime Office has listed its own charges and above all, the National Investigation Bureau has also got its own charges against Ken Ofori-Atta.
“What it means is that multiple institutions have identified the impropriety of Ken Ofori-Atta’s office and they are asking him to come to Ghana so that we can take him through a due process,” he lamented.
Mornah also accused Ofori-Atta of deliberately staying away from Ghana to avoid accountability and called on US authorities to act.
“And Ken continues in the United States to say that he is avoiding justice and we want to indicate that the US, through the ambassador in Ghana, must ensure that Ken is returned to the princes of Ghana so that he can face the justice and the people of Ghana can judge for ourselves whether what he did is right or wrong.”
The protest forms part of growing public calls for the former finance minister to return home amid ongoing investigations into financial transactions approved during his tenure.
MAG/MA
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