Dr Dominic Ayine, the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, has urged Ghanaians to exercise patience as his office conducts painstaking investigations into the ORAL cases.
According to Dr Dominic Ayine, he would not bow to public pressure to rush cases to court without adequate evidence, which could lead to failed prosecutions.
Speaking at the Government Accountability Series on Wednesday, October 22, Dr Ayine stated, “It’s important that we do painstaking investigations. ORAL reports are still coming to my office.
Those who are pushing me to go to court, and those who are saying that by now convictions should have been obtained, I know you have legitimate expectations of the government officials, including President John Dramani Mahama and the Attorney General. But we need to do a good job.”
He cautioned, “Accountability takes time, and so it’s important that Ghanaians exercise patience. Not that I will rush to court, and defence lawyers will come and raise objections, and my case will be thrown out. And the same Ghanaians who wanted me to go to court expeditiously will turn around and say Ayine is an incompetent Attorney General”.
Dr Dominic Ayine further assured the public that his office is committed to ensuring justice through thorough investigations and fair prosecutions.
“I was never an incompetent lawyer in private practice; I don’t want to be in public service,” he said.
Meanwhile, Daniel Domelevo, a member of the Operation Recover All Loot (ORAL) team, has admitted that the ORAL team collected and compiled data which included garbage.
According to Domelevo, the ORAL team was limited to gathering complaints without a preliminary investigation.
Speaking on Joy News’ PM Express on October 22, Mr Domelevo stated, “As for us, we just collected data and summed it up. We didn’t do any investigation”.
“A preliminary investigation may even show that some of the complaints were just noise. There’s nothing in it. But we collected the data as it did so, including the garbage.”
When asked to clarify the word “garbage,” Mr Domelevo explained, “Yes, because nobody came to us that we turned away and said, Yours we will not take.
So we collected all the information. Remember, we are not investigating. So when you come, we are not going to say that Mr Mensah substantiates what you are saying. So you just come and say that I know Mr Amaliba is involved in this, that, that, that, the amount is this. We look at the document you have, and we capture it. Some even came in the form of emails. What about if the person is just making it up?” he added.
Domelevo explained, “Being an experienced auditor, I know that you can even submit documents, and later on, when we test the document, the documents may not have any substance, or they may not be authentic,” he said. “So there will be a lot of garbage in it. There’s no two ways about that.”
He, however, commended the Attorney General for taking time to correct public misconceptions: “It is good that the Attorney General spends some time,” he said. “I listened to him. Clearly, he spent some time to dispel the view that anybody or any member or legal team of the NDC, for that matter, was trying to bribe their way through. I think that is very, very, very necessary.”