{"id":98147,"date":"2025-10-12T02:42:16","date_gmt":"2025-10-12T02:42:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=98147"},"modified":"2025-10-12T02:42:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-12T02:42:16","slug":"the-heat-that-they-are-facing-is-justifiable-dr-osae-kwapong-on-governments-slow-oral-prosecutions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=98147","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The heat that they are facing is justifiable\u201d \u2014 Dr. Osae-Kwapong on government\u2019s slow ORAL prosecutions"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>3 Minute, 53 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>
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Nine months into President John Dramani Mahama\u2019s administration, a prominent governance expert has issued a sharp critique of the government\u2019s pace in prosecuting high-profile corruption cases, warning that the administration is a \u201cvictim of its own political promises\u201d.<\/p>\n

Dr. John Osae-Kwapong, a respected fellow at the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), stated emphatically on Saturday, October 11, 2025, that the public\u2019s impatience and growing criticism are \u201cjustifiable\u201d due to the wide chasm between campaign rhetoric and concrete judicial action.<\/p>\n

The central point of Dr. Osae-Kwapong\u2019s criticism revolves around the severe disparity between the total number of corruption complaints submitted to the state and the actual number of cases proceeding to trial.<\/p>\n

The government\u2019s Operation Recover All Loot (ORAL) initiative, launched with a mandate to investigate and recover allegedly misappropriated public funds, has received an astronomical number of complaints.<\/p>\n

According to ORAL Committee data from its inception, the committee reviewed findings related to 36 major financial cases estimated to be valued at approximately $20.49 billion, with land cases alone accounting for an estimated $702.8 million in losses. <\/p>\n

The committee also received 2,417 total complaints, including 44 direct petitions, 924 emails, and 1,493 phone calls.<\/p>\n

Despite this colossal caseload and the magnitude of financial loss to the state\u2014which campaign messages suggested could be recovered\u2014Dr. Osae-Kwapong highlighted a significant bottleneck in the judicial process:<\/p>\n

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He explained that although the Attorney-General had received 2,400 cases from ORAL, only a handful of prosecutions have started. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not as though absolutely nothing has been done. Are we not aware of the National Signals Bureau? Have processes not begun?\u201d he asked, adding, \u201cNow you will say two, three and how many\u2026 you are talking 2,400.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The expert\u2019s figure of just two<\/em> public prosecutions nine months into the administration casts a critical spotlight on the government\u2019s anti-corruption scorecard, particularly given the unprecedented scale of the ORAL findings.<\/p>\n

The Burden of Unrealistic Political Promises<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dr. Osae-Kwapong argued that the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) is facing justified public anger because its campaign created \u201clegitimate expectations\u201d that overlooked the practical, time-consuming nature of due process.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe heat that they are facing is justifiable,\u201d he stressed. \u201cYou promised certain results. What the public is waiting for is to see those results.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

He cited a specific high-profile case involving the former National Investigations Bureau boss, Nana Agyei Ampofo, who was accused by ORAL of acquiring state land valued at an alleged $700,000 for a payment of only GH\u00a2160,000. <\/p>\n

The disparity between the valuation and the alleged payment was used to galvanize anti-corruption sentiment.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhat do you want the person sitting out there to think?\u201d Dr. Osae-Kwapong questioned. \u201cShould they agree with you when you say, \u2018Oh, they should put a caveat that we don\u2019t want to convict innocent people,\u2019 when you had already told them this man has stolen land?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

He lamented that politicians failed to caution voters that \u201cdue process often clashes with public impatience,\u201d noting that corruption prosecutions, particularly those involving complex financial data and large sums like the promised $21 billion recovery figure, often \u201ctake years because the wheels of justice grind slowly.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe certainty with which you promise those results is what the public is waiting to see,\u201d he added. \u201cNobody sees due process. You can\u2019t touch it, you can\u2019t feel it. But everybody can see a convicted person in handcuffs or being sent to jail.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The expert also touched upon the recent clarification by the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Dr. Dominic Ayine, regarding the limits of his constitutional mandate. While legally correct, the timing of the statement was politically detrimental, according to Dr. Osae-Kwapong.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI found it very instructive when the Attorney-General said, \u2018As Attorney-General I can only prosecute, I can\u2019t convict.\u2019 I agree with him professionally,\u201d Dr. Osae-Kwapong said. \u201cBut in the eyes of the public, what they are waiting for is results. Whether you are the one who will convict or not, they want to see action.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In conclusion, Dr. Osae-Kwapong warned the government that the anti-corruption effort must be allowed to proceed without political interference.<\/p>\n

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\u201cLet it fail because of weak institutions and weak processes, not because the very people who promised change turned around to undermine it,\u201d he cautioned.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The ongoing discourse highlights the severe challenge faced by the government: balancing the demand for swift justice against the constitutional requirement for meticulous legal procedure, all while under the intense scrutiny generated by its own ambitious campaign promises.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Dr.Nine months into President John Dramani Mahama\u2019s administration, a prominent governance expert has issued a sharp critique of the government\u2019s pace in prosecuting high-profile corruption cases, warning that the administration is a “victim of its own political promises”.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1951,1883,117,744,10,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hp-news-1","category-national","category-news","category-oral","category-politics","category-popular"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=98147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98147\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=98147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=98147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=98147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}