Private legal practitioner Ace Anan Ankomah has shared his perspective on the ongoing debate regarding the actual status of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Government of Ghana and the US for the deportation of some West African nationals into the country.

The government has faced criticism after President John Dramani Mahama and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, revealed in separate media engagements that arrangements have been made with the US for some West African nationals to be deported to Ghana.

Critics argue that the government's decision to enter the arrangement without parliamentary approval breaches the 1992 Constitution.

Ghana ready to accept West African deportees from the USA – President Mahama

In defence, the Minister of Foreign Affairs stated that the arrangement is a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and not a full agreement.

He noted that the government will seek parliamentary ratification once it is elevated to an agreement.

Contributing to the discourse in a Facebook post, Ace Ankomah argued that the execution of responsibilities contained in the MoU makes it a valid contract.

US deported foreigners still in Ghana – Barker-Vormawor alleges

"A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) is typically used for collaborative endeavours, documenting pre-contractual mutual understandings and defining shared objectives. It lacks the critical contractual element called the 'intention to create legal relations,' making it non-binding and/or an unenforceable promise.

"However, performance of mutual obligations under such a document would presume a valid contract, shifting the burden to prove otherwise. So, the key issue isn't how the document is titled or what it is called, but what the parties intended it to do, which may be discerned from what the parties, in fact, did," he wrote in the post dated Friday, September 19, 2025.

Meanwhile, private legal practitioner, Oliver Barker-Vormawor, has alleged that some of the West African nationals deported to Ghana under the said MoU are still in the country, despite contrary claims by the president and the minister.

President Mahama, in a recent media engagement, disclosed that 14 deportees, including Nigerians and one Gambian, had already arrived in the country, with the government facilitating their return to their home countries.

However, Barker-Vormawor, representing eleven of the West African nationals, stated that his clients are being held in military bases in the country and have not been repatriated.

He made the disclosure when he moved two ex parte applications before a virtual High Court hearing on Thursday, September 18, 2025.

His applications consist of an injunction restraining the Ghanaian government from repatriating the US deportees and a habeas corpus application seeking an order to compel the government to produce them in court.

He said his clients are West African nationals from Nigeria, Liberia, Togo, Gambia, Niger, and Mali.



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