...AS THE AMERICANS PUT PRESSURE ON KUFUOR
A committee, constituted by the President to handle the extradition case involving former deputy Finance Minister, Grace Coleman has reportedly been exerting pressure on her to voluntarily report to US authorities to avoid going through extradition proceedings in Ghana.

The committee members are Chief of Staff, Kwadwo Mpiani, Foreign Minister, Nana Akuffo Addo and an NPP official.

Mrs Coleman was dropped as Deputy Finance Minister because of pressure from the US government for her extradition to that country to face criminal charges relating to American immigration and naturalization laws.

A US Official was sent to President Kufuor to exert pressure and to warn that Ghana’s failure to extradite the then deputy Minister could adversely affect Ghana-USA relations.

President Kufuor referred the US official to the then Attorney General, Nana Akuffo Addo who advised that the first step as a gesture of good faith to the US government, was to drop Mrs Coleman as Minister.

Mrs Coleman, her daughter, Barbara Coleman-Blackwell and her son-in-law, Kenneth Blackwell who live in the US have reportedly been indicted by a Maryland Court for allegedly bringing a Ghanaian woman into the United States illegally and using her as an unpaid domestic servant for about 17 months.