ABIDJAN: Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama arrived yesterday in Ivory Coast for talks with counterpart Alassane Ouattara likely to include Abidjan’s request to extradite ex-Ivorian leader Laurent Gbagbo’s spokesman.
Mahama’s office said the trip was to thank regional leaders for their support following the death on July 24 of his predecessor, John Atta Mills. The president is also scheduled to travel to Burkina Faso on this trip and Benin, Nigeria and Togo later in the week.
The Ivory Coast visit comes at a tense moment in the two neighbors’ relationship over the fate of Justin Kone Katinan, the spokesman for Ouattara’s arch-enemy Gbagbo, who was arrested in Accra last month.
Ghana’s High Court declined yesterday to release Katinan, ruling that he had to face an extradition hearing, which prosecutors said should begin today in a magistrate’s court.
Katinan was arrested on Aug. 24 under an Ivory Coast warrant for alleged economic crimes as budget minister during the crisis that followed Gbagbo’s refusal to cede power to Ouattara in December 2010.
He was among thousands of Gbagbo loyalists who fled to Ghana after the post-election conflict from December 2010 to April 2011, in which some 3,000 people were killed.
Ghana president to meet Ivory Coast leader over Gbagbo spokesman
