Interpol has removed former Finance Minister Kenneth Nana Yaw Ofori Atta from its Red Notice database.
Checks by Graphic Online on November 19, 2025, showed that the wanted notice is no longer available on Interpol’s public website.
Interpol issued the Red Notice on June 5, 2025, after the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) applied for him to be placed there as a wanted man who used public office for profit.
On June 9, 2025, the family of Mr Ofori Atta submitted a petition to the Commission for the Control of Files of Interpol seeking the removal of the alert.
The Commission reviews challenges to Red Notices and has the authority to direct the deletion of data that does not meet Interpol rules.
Interpol rules require that Red Notices be supported by valid legal proceedings in the requesting country. Article 83 of the Rules on the Processing of Data states that an alert must rest on an arrest warrant or a court decision.
Article 2 of Interpol’s Constitution bars the organisation from dealing with matters that carry political, military, religious or racial character.
On November 18, 2025, the Office of the Special Prosecutor filed 78 criminal charges against Mr Ofori Atta and seven others in the Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Limited procurement case.
On November 19, 2025, the Office of the Special Prosecutor released a public notice stating that proceedings before the Commission for the Control of Files are still pending.
The notice added that on November 7, 2025, the Commission informed Ghanaian authorities that Mr Ofori Atta had filed additional arguments and directed Ghana to respond by November 21, 2025.
The Office of the Special Prosecutor advised the public to disregard reports suggesting that the matter had been concluded.
The notice said such reports were based on misinformation.
Mr Ofori Atta is under investigation in five separate matters.
These include petroleum revenue assurance contracts with Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Limited, procurement of 307 ambulances, the National Cathedral project, which used 58 million dollars, contract terminations within the electricity sector, and management of the GRA Tax P-Fund.
The 78 charges filed relate to the SML procurement matter and cover alleged irregular processes in awarding contracts for downstream petroleum revenue assurance.
An Interpol Red Notice is a request to police agencies across the world to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition or related action.
Member countries decide individually whether to act on such alerts.
With the removal of the Red Notice from Interpol’s public database, Mr Ofori Atta no longer faces the risk of provisional arrest within its 196 member states.
He still faces 78 criminal charges in Ghana.
