Home - $21.19 billion ORAL recovery figure was Ablakwa's personal assessment – Kpebu

Former member of the Operation Recover All Loot (ORAL) Committee, Martin Kpebu, has challenged claims by Foreign Affairs Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa that the government could recover up to $21.19 billion from allegedly stolen state assets.

Kpebu insists the figure was Ablakwa's personal assessment and was never collectively established or endorsed by members of the ORAL Committee.

Speaking in a follow-up interview on Joy FM's Super Morning Show on Wednesday, November 4, 2026, the lawyer said the committee did not conduct any assessment that arrived at the projected recovery amount.

He stressed that members were not consulted on the figure before it was made public, and therefore it should not be presented as the committee's position.

“Let us remember that the comment that was made (by Ablakwa) was a personal comment, it was not by the committee, it was one of our members who made the comment and I didn't endorse it neither any of our member endorsed it,” he said.

“It is not a collective decision. He (Mr Ablakwa) said 'if we are successful', so it is a conditional clause,” he argued.

Kpebu's comments follow an announcement by Ablakwa in February 2025 that Ghana could potentially recover $21.19 billion from 36 major cases involving high-value transactions and alleged losses of state assets through land-related dealings.

The Foreign Affairs Minister, who chaired the ORAL Committee, said the estimated recovery could exceed the financial support Ghana had been seeking from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

However, Kpebu's latest remarks raise questions about whether the $21.19 billion projection was based on a collective assessment by the committee or an individual estimate by its chairman.

NA/BAI