2024
SUPREME COURT
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
The Supreme Court of Ghana was tasked with determining whether a 1931 Extradition Treaty between the United States and the United Kingdom applies to modern Ghana under the 1992 Constitution. This question arose during extradition proceedings for Abiola Ayorinde Kayode, accused of financial fraud. The Supreme Court held that the treaty is part of Ghanaian law as it succeeded from British colonial rule. The case review included lower court procedures, arguments from both sides, and multiple references to past legal precedents, such as Republic vs. Director of Prisons; Ex parte Allotey and the 1992 Constitution.
KWOFIE JSC:
This reference to the Supreme Court was sent by the District Court, Kaneshie, Accra who stated the question for determination as follows:
“whether or not the Extradition Treaty between the United States of America and the United Kingdom which was signed on 22nd December 1931 and came into force on 24th June 1935 forms part of the laws of Ghana within the meaning of Article 11(1) (d) of the 1992 Constitution and Section 3(2) of the Extradition Act 1960 (Act 22) in the light of the fact that Article 16 of the said Treaty makes the Treaty applicable to the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast”.
BACKGROUND
The reference emanated from a request for extradition of the fugitive presented to Ghana by the United States (USA) government based on the Extradition Treaty between the United States of America and Great Britain which was signed on 22nd December 1931 pursuant to the indictment of the fugitive in the United States on 21st August 2019 for offences of fraud committed by the fugitive and his co-conspirators.
The 1st fugitive/applicant (referred to in this judgment as the applicant) Abiola Ayorinde Kayode alias ABK has been charged in the United States District Court for the District of Nebraska on 22nd August 2019 on an indictment for engaging in a large transnational criminal enterprise, involving numerous financial fraud schemes in the case of United States vs. Alex Ogunshiakin, Felix Okpoh and Abiola. The operations targeted Chief Financial Officers, Controllers or other financial employees of businesses who received spoofed emails that appeared to be from the chief executive officers, owners or other executives of the businesses and requested that the recipient or target employees submit a wire transfer. They succeeded in defrauding over 70 companies, their victims, who reported a combined loss of over 6 Million Dollars. The applicant Abiola Ayorinde Kayode (ABK) and others conspired to defraud victims and launder the proceeds of the fraud through a business email compromise scheme which is Nigerian based and involves a large, complex, and loosely organized group of criminals with different specialties in various aspects of the scheme. Investigations revealed that illicit funds obtained in the scheme were transferred to bank accounts in China, the United Arab Emirates and other countries.
The Applicant’s involvement in the fraudulent scheme included providing Amiyeloye, a member of the scheme with US bank accounts which were used by the