The Embassy of Ghana in Washington, DC, has assured that the rights of Ghana’s former Finance Minister, Kenneth Nana Yaw Ofori-Atta, will be fully respected following his detention by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

In a statement issued on Saturday 10, 2026, Ambassador Victor Emmanuel Smith confirmed that the Embassy had received information about Mr. Ofori-Atta’s detention and immediately took steps to verify the circumstances. The Embassy subsequently contacted the detention facility to request access to the former minister and provide consular assistance in line with diplomatic and international protocols.

Officials at the facility informed the Embassy that Mr. Ofori-Atta had declined engagement with consular officers without his lawyers present. The Embassy emphasised that it remains in close contact with the appropriate U.S. authorities and will continue monitoring the situation to ensure that Mr. Ofori-Atta’s rights are upheld.

Speaking about the arrest earlier, investigative journalist Manasseh Azure Awuni described the operation as targeted. He reported that Mr. Ofori-Atta was taken into custody on January 6 at the Westlight building, a high-end residential complex in Northwest Washington, D.C., where he reportedly resides with his family.

The Embassy reiterated that its priority is the welfare and legal rights of Ghanaian citizens abroad and will continue to provide all necessary consular support to Mr. Ofori-Atta during his detention.

Confrontations at fire scenes are becoming increasingly common in Ghana, often involving firefighters and affected victims, mostly traders. Experts say these clashes are frequently triggered by delays in response, with a recent incident escalating into the assault of a journalist.

The trend has been linked to late arrival of fire tenders, non-functional hydrants, traffic congestion, and other operational challenges.

In November 2025, a firefighter was stabbed while responding to a fire that destroyed seven rooms in a two-storey building near Ability Square in Adjiringanor. Earlier, in March 2025, a viral video from the Adum Central Market fire showed Ashanti Regional Minister Frank Amoakohene openly questioning fire officers over what he described as a lack of urgency at the scene.

More recently, a journalist with Class Media was assaulted at the Kasoa New Market fire while filming a confrontation between firefighters and traders.

These incidents underscore a widening gap in understanding between the public and emergency responders. Security consultant Richard Kumador attributes the clashes largely to limited public knowledge of fire service operations and the constraints firefighters face during emergencies.

“Public education and awareness creation can help to reduce these instances where you see fire service people being attacked because people do not understand their nature of their work. But public education will help to clear the traffic and how we have structures all over the place. This is why we need REGSEC and MMDAs to come on board and enforce the bylaws,” he said.

Kumador emphasised that the public must understand the realities of fire response operations, including logistical challenges and safety protocols.

The Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) has also indicated plans to train media personnel on responsible and safe reporting at fire scenes.

“Once the media is well informed, they will be able to also put out the required information but because that gap exists and most journalists are not well informed about our modus operandi, they still report negatively against us,” DO II Desmond Ackah, Head of Public Affairs at the GNFS, told Channel One News.

Experts say bridging this knowledge gap is crucial to preventing future confrontations and ensuring both public safety and the effectiveness of emergency response operations.

US President Donald Trump has asked for at least $100bn (£75bn) in oil industry spending for Venezuela but received a lukewarm response at the White House as one executive warned the South American country was currently “uninvestable”.

Bosses of the biggest US oil firms who attended the meeting acknowledged that Venezuela, sitting on vast energy reserves, represented an enticing opportunity.

But they said significant changes would be needed to make the region an attractive investment. No major financial commitments were immediately forthcoming.

Trump has said he will unleash the South American nation’s oil after US forces seized its leader Nicolas Maduro in a 3 January raid on its capital.

“One of the things the United States gets out of this will be even lower energy prices,” Trump said in Friday’s meeting at the White House.

But the oil bosses present expressed caution.

Exxon’s chief executive Darren Woods said: “We have had our assets seized there twice and so you can imagine to re-enter a third time would require some pretty significant changes from what we’ve historically seen and what is currently the state.”

“Today it’s uninvestable.”

Venezuela has had a complicated relationship with international oil firms since oil was discovered in its territory more than 100 years ago.

Chevron is the last remaining major American oil firm still operating in the country.

A handful of companies from other countries, including Spain’s Repsol and Italy’s Eni, both of which were represented at the White House meeting, are also active.

Trump said his administration would decide which firms would be allowed to operate.

“You’re dealing with us directly. You’re not dealing with Venezuela at all. We don’t want you to deal with Venezuela,” he said.

The White House has said it is working to “selectively” roll back US sanctions that have restricted sales of Venezuelan oil.

Officials say they have been coordinating with interim authorities in the country, which is currently led by Maduro’s former second-in-command, Vice-President Delcy Rodríguez.

But they have also made clear they intend to exert control over the sales, as a way to maintain leverage over Rodríguez’s government.

The US this week has seized several oil tankers carrying sanctioned crude. American officials have said they are working to set up a sales process, which would deposit money raised into US-controlled accounts.

“We are open for business,” Trump said.

Venezuela’s oil production has been hit in recent decades by disinvestment and mismanagement – as well as US sanctions. At roughly one million barrels per day, the country accounts for less than 1% of global supply.

Chevron, which accounts for about a fifth of the country’s output, said it expected to bolster its production, building on its current presence, while Exxon said it was working to send in a technical team to assess the situation in the coming weeks.

Repsol, which currently boasts output of about 45,000 barrels per day, said it saw a path to triple its production in Venezuela over the next few years under the right conditions.

Executives at other firms also said Trump’s promises of change would encourage investment and they were hoping to seize the moment.

“We are ready to go to Venezuela,” said Bill Armstrong, who leads an independent oil and gas driller. “In real estate terms, it is prime real estate.”

But analysts say meaningfully increasing production would take significant effort.

“They are being as polite as humanly possible, and being as supportive as they can, without committing actual dollars,” said David Goldwyn, president of the energy consultancy Goldwyn Global Strategies and former US state department special envoy for international energy affairs.

Exxon and Shell are “not going to invest single-digit billions of dollars, much less tens of billions of dollars”, without physical security, legal certainty and a competitive fiscal framework, Goldwyn said.

“It’s not really welcome from an industry point of view,” he said. “The conditions are just not right.”

While smaller companies might be more eager to jump in and help boost Venezuela’s oil production over the next year, he said those investments would likely hover in the $50m range – far from the “fantastical” $100bn figure that Trump has floated.

Rystad Energy estimates it would take $8bn to $9bn in new investments per year for production to triple by 2040.

Trump’s suggested $100bn of investment into Venezuela could have a major impact on production – if it were to materialise, said the firm’s chief economist, Claudio Galimberti.

He said companies would only be likely to invest on that scale with subsidies – and political stability. Americans should not expect the situation in Venezuela to lower oil prices anytime soon, he added.

“It’s going to be difficult to see big commitments before we have a fully stabilised political situation and that is anybody’s guess when that happens,” he said.

Source: BBC

The Executive Secretary of the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC), Duncan Amoah, has urged former Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta to return to Ghana and face the law, arguing that doing so is necessary to protect his integrity.

Speaking on The Big Issue on Saturday, January 10, 2026, Mr Amoah questioned Mr Ofori-Atta’s commitment to accountability, citing comments he made while in office when he refused to resign despite worsening economic indicators.

According to him, Mr Ofori-Atta had justified his decision to remain in office at the time by saying he was a father and could not abandon his children. Mr Amoah argued that the same sense of responsibility should now compel the former finance minister to return to Ghana and submit himself to the law.

“I recall when the Honourable Ken Ofori-Atta was still the Finance Minister. In one of his interviews, he was asked whether he would resign when the indicators were so awful. His response was that he’s a father and he cannot abandon his children. I wonder why the fatherliness in him has suddenly evaporated,” he said.

Mr Amoah added that the former finance minister owes Ghanaians explanations over several unresolved matters related to his management of the economy and financial agreements during his tenure.

He stressed that, as a matter of integrity, Mr Ofori-Atta must return to Ghana to face accountability.

“I think that if it was down to integrity issues, if I were him, if I had the courage to take the kind of decisions he took, I would have come down and faced the law,” he added.

Economist Professor Patrick Asuming has described the first year of the Mahama administration as a strong start, saying the government assumed office with a clear sense of direction and moved quickly to set its agenda in motion.

Speaking on Channel One TV’s The Big Issue on Saturday, January 10, Prof Asuming said it became evident in the early weeks of the administration that there was a defined plan guiding government actions. He noted that even those who disagreed with some of the policies could see that the President acted swiftly to implement what he set out to do.

He said one of the administration’s biggest achievements so far has been its ability to restore public confidence after years of economic difficulty. From 2022 through to the end of 2024, he explained, the economy appeared largely stagnant, leaving many Ghanaians frustrated and uncertain about the future.

Prof Asuming pointed to the Bank of Ghana’s Consumer and Business Sentiment Surveys, which showed a noticeable improvement in public outlook once it became clear that there would be a change in government. He said optimism began to return even before the new administration officially took office.

According to him, the government capitalised on the improved mood by honouring some of its campaign pledges in its first budget, a move he said helped build trust and carry many Ghanaians along in the early stages of the administration.

“I think you have to say the first year of the administration has gone well. You get the sense right from early on, right from the opening weeks of the administration, that there was a clear plan on what the strategy is and what they want to do. Whether you agree with all of it or not, you knew that there was a clear idea of what we want to do and the president wasted no time in doing it. One of the things that the administration has succeeded in doing is change the mood of the country. Because if you start from 2022, the kind of crisis that we’ve been through, and getting towards the end of 2024, you got the sense that the economy was sitting on autopilot, not much was happening. But the moment the election happened, if you track for instance the BoG’s Consumer and Business Sentiment Survey, the moment it was obvious that there was going to be a change, you began to see that moods changed and sentiments shifted.

“The administration also tapped into that and made sure that, for instance, the first budget that was read, the administration decided to honour some of the pledges it had made and through that carried many people along.”

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A leading member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Ashanti Region, Comrade Emmanuel Reagan Fynn, popularly known by the slogan “Job Dey Ground,” has officially declared his intention to contest for the position of Ashanti Regional Organiser of the party.

Comrade Fynn made this announcement during an interview on Adehye 99.1 FM’s Morning Show, Ghana Ekɔsen, a Kumasi-based radio station, on Friday. He explained that his decision follows extensive consultations with key stakeholders and sustained calls from party grassroots across the Ashanti Region and beyond.

Describing his decision as a call to service, Comrade Fynn emphasized his commitment to strengthening the party’s grassroots structures and repositioning the Ashanti Region as a formidable stronghold of the NDC ahead of the 2028 general elections.

“In all my political life, I have been organising. Everything I do has to do with organising,” he stated.

Highlighting his political journey, Comrade Fynn noted that he is a product of the grassroots, having served diligently in various capacities including Branch Secretary, Ward Youth Organiser, Constituency Youth Organiser, and currently as Deputy Ashanti Regional Youth Organiser. He underscored that this progression has equipped him with deep institutional knowledge and practical experience in party organisation and mobilisation.

A professional teacher by training, Comrade Fynn explained that his academic and professional background positions him to modernise the party’s organizational operations through strategic planning, discipline, and structured capacity-building.

Outlining his vision for the region, he pledged to:
Empower grassroots members through continuous training and capacity-building,
Foster unity across all party structures,
Strengthen party presence in traditional strongholds and swing areas, and Increase the number of NDC Members of Parliament in the Ashanti Region from seven (7) to fifteen (15) in the 2028 elections.

Citing tangible results from his organizing efforts, he pointed to Kokoben as an example:

“If you go to Kokoben, we have increased our votes from six (6) to over four hundred (400). That is part of my hard work. If you are not an organiser, you cannot do that work. It is a typical Akan-dominated area, and there are many other areas where I have helped to strengthen the party base.”

Comrade Fynn further reaffirmed his deep-rooted commitment to grassroots engagement, recalling that even during his time as a Branch Youth Organiser, he worked closely with all branch executives and was familiar with their communities and homes, an approach he believes is critical to effective party organisation.

“If the Ashanti Region is to be vibrant and attractive, the role of the organizer cannot be overlooked. With my wealth of experience, I humbly present myself as your next Ashanti Regional Organiser. I urge all party faithful to rally behind me for a shared victory,” he concluded.