Outspoken lawyer Martin Kpebu has confirmed that he no longer sits on the Operation Recover All Loot (ORAL) committee, the anti-corruption body set up early in President John Dramani Mahama’s new term. His explanation is simple: the job was always meant to be temporary, and it is done.
Kpebu made the announcement while speaking on Onua TV, where he was asked about his current standing with the initiative. According to him, ORAL was never designed as a permanent fixture. It was created to fill a specific gap, the period when Ghana had no substantive Attorney-General, and its life span was tied to that vacancy.
“I am no longer a member of ORAL, as that committee was only short-term until the President appointed an Attorney-General,” he said. “We were essentially collecting complaints during the period the AG’s Office was vacant, receiving a total of 2,500 complaints.”
That figure is striking. Some 2,500 complaints reached the committee in a relatively short window, suggesting that many Ghanaians had grievances about alleged graft and had simply been waiting for a channel through which to raise them.
The five-member committee was unveiled in December 2024, with a clear brief: collect information and evidence on alleged corruption and corruption-related offences from members of the public, then pass the material on to the appropriate state institutions for action. In other words, ORAL was meant to act as a gateway rather than a courtroom, gathering and routing complaints rather than investigating or prosecuting them itself.
Kpebu was one of the names on that list, though his road to the committee was not entirely smooth. He has said he had reservations when first approached, before ultimately agreeing to serve.
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Once on board, he became one of the initiative’s more visible supporters. In an earlier interview, he described the creation of ORAL as a masterstroke, arguing that it could help solve long-standing difficulties in how corruption complaints are received and handled.
Kpebu’s disclosure carry weight because of how closely he was associated with the initiative. His confirmation that the committee’s mandate has effectively run its course raises fair questions about what ORAL’s legacy will be, and what happens to the thousands of complaints it gathered. Whether those submissions translate into investigations, prosecutions or recoveries is likely to be the real measure of the exercise, and that responsibility now rests with the institutions that received them.
His remarks are also likely to fuel public conversation about the circumstances of his exit and the committee’s place in Ghana’s wider anti-corruption architecture.
For Kpebu, the moment is consistent with a long record of speaking publicly on corruption, accountability and the need for stronger institutions. Though his formal role in ORAL has ended, his voice on these issues is unlikely to go quiet.