Loot recovery exercise must be guided by history – Bentil

Persons who don’t learn from the history surrounding loot recovery are condemned to repeat the same action, Private legal practitioner Kofi Bentil has said.

He expresses the view that the loot recovery exercise must be guided by history.

“What’s the history of so-called ‘loot recovery’? It’s a cycle where the recoverers become the looters and the looters become the recoverers. It’s we citizens who lose when then bandits who have now become friends walk off and laugh at us.

“To those rolling their eyes, ask yourself what happened to Woyome? Today he has reappeared in NDC politics. We need a serious look at both major parties !! And a way to ensure they stop the looting musical chairs! We citizens lose and they politicians take turns to rob us” he wrote on Facebook while replying to a post made by a United States-based Professor Kwaku Asare to the effect that recovering looted properties is necessary for Ghana’s development.

Prof Asare had stated also loot recovery must be pursued with unwavering determination, transparency, and a commitment to justice.

Prof explains that such an exercise is not only a moral imperative but also a strategic necessity to rebuild public trust, enhance governance, and create a fairer society.

In a Facebook post, he said “Loot recovery is an essential pillar of our developmental agenda and must be pursued with unwavering determination, transparency, and a commitment to justice.

“It is not only a moral imperative but also a strategic necessity to rebuild public trust, enhance governance, and create a fairer society where resources are used for the benefit of all, not the enrichment of a few.

“There is no need for apprehension—those who have not looted have nothing to worry about. However, those who have should brace themselves for the sleepless nights they rightfully deserve.”

President-elect John Dramani Mahama has constituted a team called Operation Recover All Loots (ORAL) to receive information from the public on suspected acts of corruption.

The Chair of the ORAL, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has said that their work will end immediately after an Attorney-General is appointed by President John Dramani Mahama,  approved by Parliament and is sworn into office.

He stated that the report that they had gathered would be forwarded to the Attorney-General for further actions to be taken.

Mr Ablakwa said this on the Key Points on TV3 on Saturday, December 21.

Further commenting on this matter, another member of the ORAL team Martin Kpebu also said on the same show “As the chair said, we are going to give the report to the A-G…the committee as a committee will no longer function.

“The government will set up the appropriate frameworks and when that is done, we will not function as the committee.”

For his part,  Old Tafo lawmaker Vincent Ekow Assafuah said that members of ORAL are just throwing out figures and allegations of corruption against innocent people without any basis.

He argued that the ORAL team members are putting out figures and issues without explaining the details of the figures.

Also speaking on the Key Points on TV3 on Saturday, December 21, he said “They are just playing to the gallery, doing politics with it and hunting innocent people. They are bound to fail.

“The members of the ORAl team are opening up themselves for defamation suits,” he added.

Mr Assafuah further stated that the ORAl is not a body backed by law.

He said “This is an unconstitutional body that has no legal basis. It is simply a populist approach. We have institutions, solid institutions like EOCO, OSP, and CHRAJ that can deal with issues of anti-corruption. The committee doesn’t have investigative and prosecutorial powers.”

Also commenting on this matter, the Executive Director of the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), Mary Addah said there were better approaches that President-elect John Mahama should have adopted as part of his plan to fight corruption.

She indicated this after describing ORAL as a populist idea.

In her view, this has just been formed to appease the public. Speaking on the Key Points on TV3 on Saturday, December 21, she stated that they have no reservations about members of the team.

However, she said “We are people who must be guided by the past about what has happened…we have seen similar committees being formed before. Akufo-Addo put in place several committees.

“We have the institutions of a state, the better approach for Mahama was to have directed the people to to send their concerns to the OSP, or CHRAJ. We are a people who have decided that we will pursue a democracy and this has built institutions for us. So if leadership wants some people to rather receive the information and send it to the institution then there is an issue, we support the call to fight corruption, and we want to see it in action but our institutions must be allowed to do this process.

“This is a populist idea of receiving complaints from the public.”

President-elect John Mahama earlier stated that the team is not going to investigate anybody.

Mr Mahama clarified that the team is only a focal point to revive information on acts of corruption by officials for onward submission to the state bodies to act on them.

He said “With regards to ORAL, I announced the preparatory committee and people are confused. We are receiving a lot of information on things that are going wrong, corruption scandals and all that., some send me texts on my phones, some call me, others pass through other people. We want a focal point where all the evidence can be directed so that they can assemble the evidence once we come into office.

“ORAL is not going to be investigating people, it is going to gather evidence and pass on the evidence to the institutions that are supposed to do that kind of work. If people have information that they think is useful in the fight against corruption, pass it on to the team.  the team is not expecting any payment, there is no budget associated with it.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

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