Abu Trica for Ken Ofori Atta: Ghana Prisoner Swap with the US?

A suspected Ghanaian internet scammer, Frederick Kumi, also known as Abu Trika, has been arrested in Ghana in a joint operation involving U.S. authorities and Ghanaian security agencies. He is accused of scamming American citizens to the tune of $8 million in wire fraud and is expected to be extradited to the United States to face charges.

At the same time, Ghana is seeking the extradition of its former finance minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, who is currently in the United States and wanted in Ghana over alleged corruption-related offenses.

This raises a critical foreign policy question:
If both countries want Ghanaian nationals in each other’s custody, why not exchange them?

In this video, I explain why extradition is a long, court-driven legal process, and why prisoner swaps operate differently — at the level of intelligence, diplomacy, and executive power, not judges.

To make this point, I break down a little-known but historic precedent:
👉 In 1985, Ghana became the first developing country to engage in a spy/prisoner swap with the United States during the Cold War.

I walk through:

The Sharon Scranage CIA espionage scandal in Accra

How Ghanaian intelligence officer Michael Agbotui Soussoudis compromised CIA operations

The arrest of CIA informants in Ghana under the Rawlings PNDC government

How Ghana and the U.S. bypassed courts and executed a government-to-government prisoner exchange

I also compare this to the U.S.–Russia prisoner swap involving Britney Griner and Viktor Bout (the “Merchant of Death”), showing how foreign policy logic often overrides criminal procedure when leverage exists.

This video is not about Ghanaian domestic politics or legal technicalities.
It is about power, leverage, intelligence, and how states actually behave in international relations.

If you’re interested in geopolitics, intelligence history, extradition politics, and foreign policy realism — especially from an African perspective — subscribe to the channel.

Let me know your thoughts on my thoughts.