Senior Vice President of IMANI-Africa and lawyer, Kofi Bentil, has described the extradition of former Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta as a “small miracle,” noting the legal complexities and high-calibre defense team the former minister is expected to deploy.

Speaking on JoyNews, Bentil said, “What the Attorney-General did was manage expectations of the public by informing you that with the kind of things that have happened in the past year—which constitutes a defence for Ken Ofori-Atta—and with the kind of lawyers he will have… and of course he won’t have little-boy lawyers but big-boy lawyers… it will be a small miracle to extradite Ken Ofori-Atta to Ghana.”

He added, “Dr. Ayine is also a top-notch lawyer, but what he is telling Ghanaians—he won’t say it, but I will—is that the process will be extremely challenging, and the U.S. legal system will scrutinize every aspect before acting.”

The extradition request, formally submitted on December 10 via Ghana’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the United States Department of Justice, now rests with American judicial authorities to determine if it meets the legal threshold.

The development underscores the difficulty of securing the return of high-profile figures for prosecution across international jurisdictions.