Lawyer Shocked Over Abu Trica Extradition

An eleventh-hour legal bid by counsel Osagyefo Oliver Barker‑Vormawor to block the extradition of his client, Frederick Kumi, widely known as Abu Trica, failed on Thursday, as the accused was put on a Delta Airlines flight to the United States in the early hours of July 9, 2026, to face charges linked to an alleged romance scam.

The development has sparked fresh public debate over extradition proceedings, due process and the enforcement of international criminal justice agreements involving Ghana.

Counsel for Abu Trica, Osagyefo Oliver Barker-Vormawor, made last-minute legal intervention aimed at preventing his client’s removal from the country, arguing that there were legal issues that warranted further consideration before any extradition could proceed.

Despite those efforts, Abu Trica was extradited to the United States, where he is expected to face proceedings in connection with criminal allegations for which American authorities had sought his transfer.

His extradition follows a July 2 decision by the High Court in Accra ordering that he should be surrendered to US authorities after an earlier order by the Gbese District Court.

Oliver Barker-Vormawor, reacting to the development in a Facebook post on Thursday morning indicated that, the treatment leveled to his client is unfair.

According to him, access to his client for past days have all proved unsuccessful, only for him to hear through the media that his client has been extradited to the United States of America.

“Yesterday, we found out through whistle-blowers that he had been sent to the Police Hospital to conduct the preparing to take him out of the Country. We put people on standby, surveilled their vehicle and realized that he was being held in BNI custody. So Yesterday, myself and three other lawyers followed up to the BNI Headquarters and after hours of waiting, we were told that our request to see him was approved. So we should proceed to Blue Gate where he was being kept.

When we got there, we were told that it was too late and they won’t grant us access. They told us to come back the next day today. This morning on our way to the BNI, we found that Frederick Kumi had been removed at 7am. I must now tell this Court what has reached us since this matter was set down, and, I believe, since I entered this room.

The public press this morning reports that Mr Frederick Kumi was removed from this jurisdiction earlier today, aboard Delta Air Lines flight 157, an aircraft that departed at sixteen minutes past nine o’clock. I do not ask this Court to take that report as proved upon my word”.

He added, “And if it is so, then let this Court weigh the hour. At sixteen minutes past nine, as this Court had convened us to consider whether a detained man might be permitted to see his lawyers, that man, if the report is true, was already above the clouds and already beyond our borders. The hearing this Court fixed, in fairness, so that the State could be heard, was overtaken by the very party for whose benefit it was fixed.”