The Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Dr Dominic Ayine, has dismissed allegations that his office is negotiating backdoor deals with suspects under the government’s Operation Recover All Loot (ORAL) initiative, insisting that all prosecutions are being handled strictly in accordance with the law.
Speaking during a working visit by Vice-President Prof Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang to the Ministry of Justice, Dr Ayine said claims of plea bargaining and compromised case files are false and unfounded.
“When it comes to ORAL, there are issues being raised about the fact that we are cutting deals in the ORAL cases. Your Excellency, ORAL is going very, very well. The prosecutions, which are being led by my deputy and the Director of Public Prosecutions, are going very, very well,” he said.
He stressed that no docket submitted to the ministry has been tampered with.
“I want to put it on record, and the National Intelligence Bureau will bear me out, that no docket has come here that has been compromised in any way,” Dr Ayine stated. “No deal, no plea arrangement has been entered into with anybody who has committed an offence that comes within the ambit of the ORAL cases we have received from the NIB and are prosecuting.”
According to him, 16 case dockets are currently under review, with prosecutors subjecting them to detailed scrutiny before moving forward.
Dr Ayine explained that where investigations appear weak, his office requests further evidence from investigators rather than proceeding with flawed prosecutions.
“We will be putting those ones through the process of critical scrutiny, so that when we notice loopholes in the investigations, we will tell the investigative authorities to bring us more evidence, as we are doing now with the National Service prosecution,” he said.
He used the occasion to reassure the public of the government’s commitment to accountability under the ORAL programme.
“People are being held accountable, and they will be held accountable as far as the ORAL programme is concerned,” he added.
Land compensation concerns
Beyond the anti-corruption drive, the Attorney-General raised alarm over what he described as a growing wave of land compensation cases against the state, warning that the financial implications could be severe.
“There are a lot of land matters, especially land compensation, and those are becoming a big headache for me as Minister of Justice. There is a tsunami of land compensation cases hitting the courts against the Republic, and the figures are mind-blowing,” he said.
Dr Ayine disclosed that some claims reach as high as GH¢500 million, with many based on historical records alleging that compensation was not paid for lands acquired during the colonial era.
“They will go and dust documents from the archives and claim that the colonial government did not pay compensation for land, and then they take the government to court,” he said, noting that such cases often succeed, even at the Supreme Court.
Preliminary estimates, he warned, suggest the cumulative claims could run into billions of Ghana cedis, posing a significant risk to the public purse.
“The last time we did a back-of-the-envelope calculation, we were looking at billions of Ghana cedis in land compensation claims,” he said, describing the situation as deeply worrying.
He disclosed that he has directed the Solicitor-General to prepare a comprehensive brief for President John Mahama on the scale and implications of the cases.
“I have directed the Solicitor-General to put together a brief for the President on the land compensation tsunami that we are having,” he said.
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