Team ORAL is determined to ensure its task is well executed — Ablakwa

Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, the Chairman of the Operation Recover All Loot (ORAL) Preparation Team, has emphasized the team’s commitment to effectively executing its mandate.

“The ORAL Team is determined in ensuring that this preparatory task is well executed and that the high expectations of the Ghanaian people are duly met,” Ablakwa stated in a social media post.

The ORAL team, formed under the leadership of President John Dramani Mahama, is responsible for investigating and recovering assets believed to have been misappropriated during the previous administration.

It is tasked with examining numerous public sector allegations, ensuring transparency, and addressing cases of state capture.

In the latest development, Ablakwa outlined the team’s recent field assessment in Accra, where they inspected several key locations believed to have been affected by state capture.

These included the Dubois Centre, Agric Mechanization lands, Labadi Beach Hotel’s beachfront, La Trade Fair, the demolished Bulgarian Embassy, and the encroached Northern Development Authority land in Cantonments.

At the Dubois Centre, tensions between the Ministry of Tourism staff and a company claiming a contract with the former government prompted Team ORAL to call in National Security to restore order.

“Team ORAL was compelled to invite National Security to take over the facility in order to restore peace and security following heightened tensions between staff of the Ministry of Tourism and a company that claims to have been given a contract by the outgone government to take charge and run the centre,” Ablakwa explained.

Additionally, the team observed the military’s deployment to prevent land appropriation at the Agric Mechanization lands in Cantonments.

“We were delighted to observe that the military had been deployed to halt a disturbingly opaque appropriation of the lands by politically exposed persons associated with the outgone government after they evicted staff of the Agric Ministry and carried out rezoning, albeit without parliamentary approval,” Ablakwa reported.

In their inspection of the Northern Development Authority lands in Cantonments, Team ORAL uncovered unauthorized land grabs.

“We took judicial notice that faceless characters had hurriedly erected walls to grab large portions of the NDA lands under extremely dubious circumstances,” said Ablakwa. The team immediately alerted National Security to intervene.

Ablakwa reassured the Bulgarian Embassy regarding their demolished property, stating that the team’s report would document the state of affairs for future action.

“We have assured officials of the Bulgarian Embassy when we toured their demolished property that our extensive report will adequately document the current state of affairs for appropriate action by the new Mahama administration,” he noted.