Vincent Ekow Assafuah, the Member of Parliament for Old Tafo
Vincent Ekow Assafuah, the Member of Parliament for Old Tafo constituency, has questioned the quality of investigations by the preparatory committee of Operation Recover All Loot (ORAL), accusing the Okudzeto Ablakwa-led team of doing a shoddy job.
Following the conclusion of their works, the committee on Monday, February 10, 2025, presented their conclusions and findings to President John Dramanai Mahama, who immediately forwarded them to the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Dominic Ayine.
At the brief ceremony, Samuel Okudzeto, the chairman of the committee and Minister of Foreign Affairs, took stock of the work done by his team, indicating that their work will save the country millions of dollars.
“Thirty-six (36) cases that we have reviewed in detail if we are successful in recoveries, we can retrieve as much as $20.49 billion – 20.49 billion United States dollars! Thirty-six cases!
“And that is from the National Cathedral, PDS, SML, you have the GNPC Salt Point decommissioning… We decided that in this open session, we will not go into greater detail. And so, I want to be restrained,” he said.
He added, “But there’s a great deal of resources belonging to the taxpayers that can be retrieved.”
Responding to the statement on JoyNews, Vincent Ekow Assafuah mentioned the 13th African Games as one of many areas where the ORAL committee’s poor job gravely manifested.
He stated that the committee would be hit with numerous defamation and libel suits due to the sub-standard job they did.
“They are supposed to open investigations into some corrupt practices. One of them is supposed corruption at the 13th African Games. I took my time to read what they meant by the alleged corruption around the 13th African Games. I saw only one document and it’s a document of the committee seeking sponsorship from BOST. I asked myself how do you classify this as an alleged corruption that needs investigation?
“Parliament approved a GH¢100million fund for the African Games and the committee went ahead to look for sponsorship. So, because of that, there is suspicion of corruption. This is what was sent to the president so that the president could task his AG to investigate. I find it very difficult. That’s why I have said that after the work of this ORAL committee, I do not doubt in my mind that there will be many defamation suits against this committee,” he said.
The 13th African Games, held in Ghana from March 8 to March 23, 2024, was hit with allegations of possible corruption following discoveries by Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa.
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