Ghana-US extradition treaty undermines our sovereignty – Oliver Barker-Vormawor
Private legal practitioner Oliver Barker-Vormawor, has argued that Ghana’s extradition agreement with the U.S has created a one-sided relationship that allows foreign law enforcement agencies to operate in ways that undermine Ghana’s sovereignty.
He tied his involvement in the ongoing extradition proceedings against alleged fraudster Abu Trica to the broader legal and sovereignty issues surrounding the agreement.
Speaking on Metro TV’s Good Morning Ghana on Monday, March 30, Oliver Barker-Vormawor explained that the main issue before the Court of Appeal is not the alleged sum of money involved, but whether the charges brought by the U.S match the offences outlined in the extradition treaty Ghana continues to operate under.
“My interest has been in terms of the unequal relationship that this extradition treaty establishes and Ghana’s own role in facilitating this one-way traffic, where our requests are ignored… but then they run roughshod here, they have FBI agents going into police cells, interrogating people on their own,” he said.
According to Barker-Vormawor, the U.S has charged Abu Trica with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and related conspiracy counts, although conspiracy is not listed as an extraditable offence in the treaty “inherited from the United Kingdom.”
“If we take the treaty that was signed between the US and the UK, which our own Supreme Court says continues to apply to us, it lists the offences that are under the treaty. Conspiracy is not one of those offences. So, it’s not even an extraditable offence,” he argued.
He noted that his legal team had reviewed historical records dating back to 1899 and found that US courts consistently interpreted conspiracy as not part of the scope of the treaty, pointing to countries such as Malta, which were originally honored the same treaty but later amended their agreements with the US to explicitly include conspiracy.
“We showed how other countries like Malta have now gone into a new treaty which amends the existing one to add conspiracy, which confirms again that it was not part of the extraditable offences,” he noted.
Barker-Vormawor also raised concerns about the handling of extradition cases at the district magistrate level, claiming that the court has a perfect track record of “ruling in favour of surrender.”
“The district magistrate, which is the only district magistrate that does extradition cases, has a 100% record in extraditing people, looks at this and says it doesn’t matter. It’s a crime. It’s strange to us,” he said.
The lawyer further slammed some state institutions for publicly describing Abu Trica as a “notorious fraudster” before trial, arguing that such statements amount “unfair character assassination.”
“Our institutions should not be involved in the process of character assassination of suspects who have not had their day in court yet. That is an absolutely no-no,” he stressed, adding that his team has taken legal action over allegations that FBI agents conducted interrogations in Ghana without proper authorization.
“We are in fact questioning how the FBI is interrogating suspects in Ghana. We don’t understand how that came from. It’s one of the things that we have sued the FBI directly in connection with,” he said.
Oliver Barker-Vormawor maintained that the key legal question should surround whether a colonial-era treaty can be used to extradite someone for offences not listed in the agreement.
“As to the offences that are listed in the treaty, which are not part of the offences he has been charged with, this is something for the courts to pronounce on,” he stated.
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