Deputy General Secretary of the opposition National Democratic Congress, Peter Boamah Otokunor has described government press statement on the Menzgold impasses as shameful and disastrous. According to him, government is not handling the issue well.
The Nana Addo government has strongly stated that it will not pay any Menzgold customer with state money and has urged aggrieved customers to seek redress in court.
A statement signed by the Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, said the customers since April 2016 ignored several warnings by the Bank of Ghana and the Securities and Exchange Commission not to do business with Menzgold.
According to government, even though it sympathises with misfortune of the customers, it will only ensure that CEO of the troubled gold firm Nana Appiah Mensah is arrested and prosecuted according to the laws of the country.
“Menzgold was not licensed by BoG or SEC and its operations were not regulated by BoG or SEC. This warning was made as far back as April 2016, and, unfortunately, was disregarded by many customers of Menzgold. BoG and SEC are, therefore, not clothed with any legal mandate to refund monies to clients.
But Speaking on Happy FM’s Epa Hoa Daben show the deputy chief scribe of the NDC said, “Government press statement on Menzgold saga is shameful and disastrous. If I were a Menzgold customer I would have been dying by now and will feel very disappointed.”
He however added that the NDC in power did it best to deal with this Menzgold brouhaha by closing down two of Nana Appiah Mensah company which was operating illegally.
”2014 the NDC closed down Menzbank through the bank of Ghana and they changed to Menzbanc we also closed it down we all know that menzgold started function well in from late 2016 coming by then we had lost the election to NPP, and till now they have done nothing, so the NPP must take full responsibility of what has happen.”
Customers of Menzgold have had their funds or investments locked up as the firm faces potential collapse.
But a careful look at reports issued by BoG on the activities of Menzgold in 2017, 2016, 2015, and 2014 clearly indicated that had individuals who decided to do business with the company listened to the central bank, they would not have probably found themselves in the situation where today they cannot retrieve their deposits from the company.
On Wednesday January 9, 2019 an Accra court has issued a bench warrant for Mr. Mensah’s arrest for allegedly “defrauding by false pretence” while operating his gold firm. His wife and sister are also on the wanted list of 194 countries.
By: Joseph Nii Ankrah
