…Court Rejects Emergency Bid, Sets Stay Hearing for July 9 but lawyer questions client’s whereabouts
By Prince Ahenkorah
The High Court in Accra has slapped down an emergency bid by lawyers for alleged romance scam kingpin Frederick Kumi better known as Abu Trica to halt his extradition to the United States over an eye-watering $8 million fraud plot.
In a dramatic twist that has left his legal team scrambling, Justice Halimah El-Alawa Abdul Baasit ruled that the emergency ex-parte application simply could not be heard without the Attorney-General being given proper notice.
The judge made it crystal clear that extradition proceedings are no trivial matter, involving both the sovereignty of the State and the rights of the accused.
But here’s the real bombshell: Abu Trica’s own lawyer, Oliver Barker-Vormawor, has told the court he has absolutely NO IDEA where his client is being held!
In an extraordinary oral application before the court on Monday, Barker-Vormawor revealed that following the extradition order, his team has been left in the dark about their client’s whereabouts.
“We still don’t know where our client is being held,” he told the judge, adding that desperate letters to the Attorney-General begging for access had fallen on deaf ears.
The court stood the matter down to allow the Attorney-General to respond before deciding whether the lawyer can finally see his client.
The emergency application was filed by Barker-Vormawor’s team seeking to STOP the extradition process dead in its tracks until they could launch a full-blown appeal against the High Court’s July 2 decision.
His lawyers argued that all processes aimed at handing Abu Trica over to U.S. authorities should be suspended until the hearing and determination of an application for leave to appeal and any subsequent appeal itself.
They also wanted to stay the execution of the High Court’s judgment dismissing Abu Trica’s application for a writ of habeas corpus, as well as the enforcement of a committal order from the District Court.
The application further demanded an order restraining the Minister for the Interior, the Attorney-General, the Ghana Police Service through INTERPOL, and all other state agencies from extraditing, removing, transferring, or surrendering Abu Trica into U.S. custody until EVERY appeal has been concluded.
The High Court initially pencilled in July 13 for the hearing but has now dramatically ABRIDGED the time bringing the hearing forward to July 9.
Confirming the new date on Facebook, Barker-Vormawor wrote: “The High Court has just made an order bringing forward the date for hearing of motion to stay the extradition of Abu Trica. Both parties must appear on 9 July.”
Earlier, the lawyer had already sounded the alarm about the breakneck speed of the proceedings, suggesting the matter would ultimately land at the Supreme Court.
“I am out of Ghana for work. I just heard that the case of Abu Trica has been fast tracked and a judge has just ordered his extradition. Hmmm. FBI 1 Abu 1. I guess this issue goes to the Supreme Court,” he posted after the July 2 ruling.
Abu Trica is wanted by U.S. authorities over an alleged $8 million romance fraud scheme one of the most lucrative scams of its kind to hit the headlines.
He was REARRESTED immediately after the High Court dismissed his legal challenge against the extradition order. Security officers swooped and took him back into custody to facilitate the extradition process.
He has been in custody since December 2025, although the High Court had previously granted him bail in the whopping sum of GH¢30 million with two justified sureties after he had already spent several months in detention.
The High Court is now set to determine on July 9 whether the extradition order should be temporarily stayed while Abu Trica pursues his appeal and a potential challenge before the Supreme Court.
But one question remains unanswered and has left his legal team deeply troubled: