News:
January 15, 2025
The Minority in parliament has challenged the legality of the Operation Recover All Loot (ORAL) Committee sets up by the president in his quest to recover looted state resources, enforce accountability, and ensure good governance.
The Minority accused the Minister designate for Attorney General and Minister of Justice for justifying unconstitutional establishment, and putting together people who go about harassing former government officials.
Addressing the media in parliament, the Member of Parliament for Suame, John Darko said the Minority believes the establishment of the ORAL Committee violates or flies in the face of the constitution. “So one would have expected that a law professor in the person of Dr. Ayine would have condemned it; but rather he justified it”.
He asserts that the nominee’s justification of ORAL has put the work of the Police CID, EOCO, the Special Prosecutor and all constitutionally established bodies out of business.
According to him, no serious country will entertain anything such as this; adding that the development is concerning and they (Minority) want the people of Ghana to know.
He advised all ex-government officials to boycott any invitation by the ORAL team, saying, “We are not going to be part of it, because we believe that there are constitutionally established bodies that can investigate any so-called and misdeed of a government. What they are doing is to go about disturbing people, entering homes, taking vehicles, seizing vehicles, and more or less taking over lands from people who have genuinely purchased lands”.
He defended the actions of former appointees who have acquired properties saying “what the former government appointees have done is to acquire properties that legally they could acquire; no illegality has taken place”.
He also accused members of the new government of also buying state properties in the prime areas many years ago.
ORAL
The Operation-Recover-All-Loot (ORAL) is an initiative by President John Dramani Mahama in his quest to recover looted funds and public assets, punish perpetrators as well as make corruption unattractive to people especially government appointee.
On Wednesday, December 18, 2024, the president announced a five-member ORAL team to perform the following:
•Investigating Corruption Cases: Establishing a specialized task force to scrutinize suspected corruption cases under previous administration.
•Recovering Misappropriated State Resources: Prioritizing the retrieval of stolen state funds, property, and other assets for national development projects.
•Prosecuting Offenders: Committing to prosecuting individuals or entities found guilty of embezzling public resources, including members of the outgoing NPP government and serving as a deterrent to future offenders.
Ghanamps.com