A medical report from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, United States of America regarding the medical status of the former finance minister Ken Ofori-Atta has surfaced.
The report, dated 14 May 2025 and signed by Ahmed Abdalrhim, MD, FACP, FSVM of the Section of International Medicine in Rochester at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, was served on the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) to justify Ofori-Atta’s inability to honour the 2 June 2025 meeting appointment scheduled between him and the OSP.
The report
The medical report, which is titled “And To Whom It May Concern”, reads as follows:
“Dear Sir/Madam,
“I am writing to inform you that Mr Ofori-Atta has undergone an MR-guided biopsy and has been diagnosed with prostate cancer.
“A surgical intervention has been deemed necessary, after the testing and MRI and biopsy procedures in March 2025, as I indicated in my February letter.
“This surgical procedure has been scheduled for June 13, with Dr Paras Shah of the Department of Urology (see attached letter). It is hoped that a closer date may open up,” the medical report says.
“Following the procedure, Mr Ofori-Atta will require a recovery period before he is able to travel to his home country. Please feel free to contact me if you require any additional information or have further questions,” the medical report further says.
The OSPs position
However, the Special Prosecutor, Kissi Agyebeng, speaking at a press conference on 2 June 2025, seemed to have ignored the report or rejected its content in its entirety, concluding that Ken Ofori-Atta has decided on purpose not to honour the OSP’s invitation.
“… the OSP has declined Mr Ofori-Atta’s invitation to view his biopsy report as we consider it a pointless exercise,” Agyebeng said. “This is because it is common learning that a biopsy report contains nothing more than a conclusion, upon the removal and examination of tissue, cells or fluids from a living body, that some disease or malady was indicated in the samples.
“A biopsy report is not an expression of a reasoned medical opinion that the subject is an invalid and unable to travel – as Mr Ofori-Atta seeks to suggest is his condition and for which reason he cannot return to the jurisdiction,” the Special Prosecutor told the press conference.
“This much is clear – since 24 January 2025 till date, Mr Ofori-Atta has failed to show any medical report which suggests that he is a travel risk and unable to return to the jurisdiction by reason of his medical condition. It has all been his singular say-so.
“Therefore, the OSP views Mr Ofori-Atta’s lawyers’ letter dated 28 May 2025 as an expression of utter bad faith on the part of Mr Ofori-Atta, and it confirms our long-held well-considered opinion and conclusion that Mr Ofori-Atta has no intention of voluntarily returning to the jurisdiction and to attend the OSP,” the Special Prosecutor further said.
Response by Ofori-Atta’s lawyer
In an interview responding to the press statement by the Special Prosecutor, Ken Ofori-Atta’s lawyer Frank Davies accused the OSP of overstepping its mandate by questioning medical reports showing what has prevented the ex-minister from appearing before investigators.
“We sent a report from the doctors to him, and the doctors’ report suggested he was unavailable for interview. If it was not sent to him, would he have commented on it and said it is pointless?
“Does it lie in his domain to make this comment? If he goes on to say that Ofori-Atta has been diagnosed with cancer, does he appreciate what that means? When did he transmogrify to be a doctor?” Davies quizzed.
Background
The Office of the Special Prosecutor, in a letter dated Tuesday 31 January 2025, invited Ken Ofori-Atta to attend an in-person meeting at the OSP’s office on Monday 10 February 2025. The letter was left at the security post of Ofori-Atta’s residence in Labone, Accra.
Ofori-Atta’s absence from Ghana and inability to honour the Special Prosecutor’s invitation on health grounds caused his lawyers, Minkah-Premo, Osei-Bonsu, Bruce-Cathline & Partners, to write to the OSP on 7 February 2025 to inform him of his absence and to convey his willingness to assist the ongoing investigations with any information they may require.
The OSP, through Special Prosecutor Kissi Agyebeng, addressed a press conference on 12 February 2025, two days after the date of the OSP’s invitation to Ken Ofori-Atta had expired, and declared Ofori-Atta a “fugitive from justice”. The OSP further labelled Ofori-Atta a “wanted person” and published the same advice on its website on 13 February 2025.
The Special Prosecutor took this route because the correspondence he received from the lawyers acting for and on behalf of Ken Ofori-Atta did not provide him with definite timelines for Ofori-Atta’s return to Ghana, he said. The OSP also declared that Ofori-Atta was not willing to return to Ghana to face justice.
Following an exchange of further letters between Ofori-Atta’s lawyers and the OSP, the “Wanted Person” and “Fugitive from Justice” tags were removed on 18 February 2025. On the same day, the OSP announced that it had revised the date for its in-person meeting with Ofori-Atta to Monday 2 June.
Reporting by Wilberforce Asare and Jonathan Ofori in Accra
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