The former Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, has questioned the legality of the Operation Recover All Loot (ORAL) committee saying the name itself shouldn’t be countenanced.
He says the committee lacks the authority to be submitting letters to individuals whom they suggest have “looted” the state without undergoing any investigation and trial.
According to the him, Ghana as a democratic polity has due process which establishes criminality of a person, and until such procedures are followed, one cannot be deemed a criminal.
However, initial letters from the ORAL team to individuals say those persons have looted, which means the persons have been charged with crime before the source of whatever they posses is ascertained.
The former Suame legislator, in an exclusive interview with Eric Mawuena Egbeta of TV3, indicated that the modus operandi of the team is against the law.
“If you’re alleging looting, already you’ve established criminality against individuals. Is that what the constitution provides? A person is deemed innocent until proven guilty. You’re saying that the person has looted, you’ve written a letter to the person, what authority to do you have to do that?” he questioned.
The former Majority Leader of Parliament further questioned the type of regime the ORAL is operating under, saying Ghana is not in a coup regime.
He therefore advised that due process be adopted in retrieving whatever some individuals have supposedly looted from the state.
“You’re shredding the image of the person and yet you’ve not established through any due process, the fact that the person has engaged in any criminality. Not because there is a new regime, there is no coup in Ghana. We are not in a coup regime. Everything, we should resort to due process.
“A person has a right to own his property. If you think that he used unorthodox means to acquire the property, let’s resort to due process and retrieve it for the state. But you don’t take this into your own hands to say that at the very outset, you’ve established criminality and the person has looted even before the person probably investigated and tried. What kind of system is that?” he asked.
