A United States immigration court has granted former Ghanaian finance minister Kenneth Nana Yaw Ofori-Atta lawful permanent residency, his legal team confirmed on Tuesday, capping a months-long saga that saw the 66-year-old arrested by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement earlier this year. The ruling, which approved his I-485 adjustment of status petition, was delivered after a hearing that examined evidence surrounding the criminal proceedings launched against him in Ghana. In Accra, the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) swiftly rejected any suggestion that the decision amounted to a vindication of the charges, insisting it played no role in the immigration case and that the credibility of the allegations would be tested only in Ghanaian courts.

Ofori-Atta, who served as finance minister from 2017 to 2024 under the previous New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration, has been in the United States since January 2025 for medical treatment, including prostate cancer surgery. He was declared a fugitive by Ghanaian authorities in February 2025 and formally charged with corruption in November. His lawyer, Frank Davies, maintains that neither Ofori-Atta nor his legal team has ever received formal notification of any criminal charges, a claim the OSP disputes by pointing to ongoing extradition proceedings routed through Ghana’s Attorney-General. The OSP acknowledges, however, that the US Department of Justice has yet to confirm that the former minister has been served with the charges, leaving a critical procedural step unresolved.

Viewed from Washington, the immigration court’s decision is a routine exercise of US legal discretion, not a judgment on the merits of Ghana’s corruption allegations. Yet the political reverberations in Accra are sharp. The NPP has accused the current National Democratic Congress (NDC) government of selective justice, warning against interference in high-profile prosecutions, while former deputy attorney-general Alfred Tuah-Yeboah has suggested a future NPP administration could reopen cases discontinued under the present government. Meanwhile, former MP Ras Mubarak has urged President John Mahama to suspend all pending US extradition requests and defence cooperation until Ofori-Atta is returned, a demand that underscores the growing frustration within some Ghanaian circles.

Legal analysts in London and Accra caution that any extradition attempt will be protracted and complex. Permanent residency does not confer immunity from extradition under the applicable treaty, but it does afford Ofori-Atta significantly stronger procedural protections. His health condition is likely to feature prominently in any discretionary review by American authorities, who retain the power to decline surrender on humanitarian grounds even if a court finds a legal basis for extradition. With the OSP insisting the domestic case proceeds regardless, the standoff now shifts to a delicate diplomatic and legal chess game, where the next move belongs as much to the US Justice Department as to the Ghanaian prosecutor.