Private legal practitioner Martin Kpebu has criticised the Special Prosecutor, Kissi Agyebeng, over his handling of the investigations involving the former Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta.
Reacting to the OSP’s press conference on October 30, 2025, which provided details on its investigations into Ken Ofori-Atta and other individuals regarding the SML contract, Kpebu said the OSP’s actions had come too late.
He argued that the office had ample time to take swift action against Ofori-Atta when investigative journalist Manasseh Azure Awuni raised concerns about alleged shady transactions in the SML contract, before the former minister left the country to seek medical treatment.
He accused the OSP of “sleeping on the job,” adding that he must be made to pay for his actions.
“It’s a bit too little, too late because the main point still remains that he sat at the back and allowed Ofori-Atta to flee. I mean, that is the matter that OSP has to pay dearly for it because you sleep on the job and the suspect runs away, now you come with press conference upon press conference,’ he said on Channel One TV on October 30, 2025.
Kpebu did not mince words, saying that the OSP’s actions have eroded public trust in the office.
According to him, the OSP has been “fooling” the public with its press conferences on Ofori-Atta, even though it watched on as the former minister left the country.
“It’s lost a lot of trust. I don’t know what he is going to do to reduce this. Ofori-Atta was walking here… To have sat down from December 2023 to December 2024 for NDC to win this election and then in January 2025, for Ofori-Atta to flee, and now you come and say you will do this, it doesn’t cut (sic). It doesn’t cut it.
“I feel like we’ve been fooled. The more this topic comes up, the more it beggars belief that OSP sat down and Ofori-Atta fled. Even if we eventually go and get Ofori-Atta, the trust that is eroded will never be restored because just as OSP sat as a duck, slept on the job, and then Ofori-Atta fled. So, all these things I’m not enthused,” he added.
The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) has said that it will, by the end of November 2025, file charges against former Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta and five others over their roles in the controversial revenue assurance contracts between the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Limited (SML).
Those expected to face prosecution include former Commissioner-Generals of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Dr Ammishaddai Owusu-Amoah, and Emmanuel Kofi Nti, as well as GRA officials Isaac Crentsil and Kwadwo Damoa, Ernest Akore, a former Technical Advisor at the Ministry of Finance.
Addressing a press conference in Accra on Thursday, October 30, 2024, the Special Prosecutor Agyebeng said, “The outcome of the investigation is that the OSP will charge the following persons with various corruption and corruption-related offences before the end of November 2025.”
He noted that months of investigations revealed acts of corruption, abuse of office, and serious breaches of procurement laws in the awarding and execution of the contracts.
“There was no genuine need for contracting SML for the work it purported to perform,” Kissi Agyebeng said.
He disclosed that the OSP will recover GH¢125 million from Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Limited (SML).
“The OSP will recover a total amount of GH₵125 from SML by way of disgorgement of unjust enrichment of overpayment by the return of the benefit this amount obtained unfairly at the expense of the Republic,” he added.
