A member of the communications team of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Wonder Madilo, says public commentary and demonstrations contributed to the politicisation of processes involving former Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta.
According to him, actions by sections of the public, including protests abroad, helped blur the line between a criminal investigation and political persecution.
Speaking on JoyNews on February 16, as monitored by NewsDesksGH, he said, “Unfortunately we have politicised this whole process. This whole thing about politics coming into it, it’s because we ourselves as Ghanaians did this.”
His comments follow an announcement by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) that INTERPOL has deleted the Red Notice issued at Ghana’s request for Ofori-Atta.
According to the OSP, the Commission for the Control of INTERPOL’s Files directed the deletion under INTERPOL’s rules on political neutrality and notice processing.
In a statement shared on its official media channels on February 13, the OSP wrote: “The Commission directed the deletion of the notice under INTERPOL’s rules on political neutrality and notice processing, citing contextual factors at the time of issuance, including ‘polarized political statements from members of current and former administrations about the conduct of the investigation,’ as well as public controversy surrounding prosecutorial and extradition processes.”
Reacting to the development, Madilo said public demonstrations, including some held in the United States, contributed to the political framing of the matter.
“Because people were even demonstrating in the U.S. and all that. In fact we made that to look political. How did crime of corruption become a political case.”
“The commentary, there was a demonstration in the US asking that he should be released to Ghana and all that,” he added.
“I think maybe that’s where we bled the lines between what crime is and what political intimidation or persecution is.”
