The Executive Director of Global InfoAnalytics, Mussa Dankwa, stated that to ensure investigations and prosecutions remain depoliticized, the report from Operation Recover All Loots (ORAL) should have been submitted to the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) rather than the Attorney-General.
He asserted that the ORAL cases will extend well beyond the four-year term of President John Dramani Mahama. Given the uncertainties surrounding the 2028 elections, there is a significant risk that a nolle prosequi could be filed in 2029 if the NDC fails to secure a victory.
“As a result, I think the Attorney-General should resource and strengthen the OSP to take on several of these potential political ORAL cases so that we can be assured that those trials will continue beyond the government’s term,” he wrote on Facebook.
The ORAL Committee has reported identifying $21.19 billion in potential recoveries from looted state assets and undervalued land sales. During a presentation of this report to the President in Accra on Monday, February 10, ORAL Chairman Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa emphasized that recovering this amount could eliminate the need for support from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
“If we are successful in recoveries, we can retrieve as much as $20.49 billion,” he stated. “These cases include major corruption scandals involving the National Cathedral project, Power Distribution Services (PDS), and the Saltpond decommissioning project, among others,” Ablakwa said.
“I am not a lawyer, but I understand enough to make suggestions on how to proceed with ORAL, having witnessed the legal gymnastics in this country. We can’t assume that NDC will win the 2028 elections, and we can’t wait for the Attorney-General’s role to be split from that of state prosecution. These ORAL cases will travel beyond the four-year term, and therefore there is a risk of nolle prosequi being filed in 2029 if NDC does not win the 2028 elections.
“As a result, I think the Attorney-General should resource and strengthen the OSP to take on several of these potential political ORAL cases so that we can be assured that those trials will continue beyond the government’s term. While JDM, through his Attorney-General, has discontinued several court cases due to what is perceived to be witch-hunting, we also saw a few nolle prosequi filings during Nana Addo’s terms, but many of the cases did not even make it to charges being filed. Therefore, both administrations can be accused of acting as clearing agents to varying degrees.”
“These challenges have arisen because successive governments have not prioritized the separation of the Attorney-General’s role from state prosecution. So, for now, the surest bet to ensure the continuation of prosecutions is to use the OSP.
“This will avoid accusations of political witch-hunting since the OSP is a former government appointee and, secondly, to ensure that prosecutions will continue even if there is a change of government until we have an amended constitution,” he said.