NPP MPs Blame BoG, Mahama For DKM Brouhaha

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) Minority Caucus in the Brong-Ahafo Region has attributed the huge loss of depositors' monies to fraudulent micro finance institutions in the region to the lackadaisical attitude of the Bank of Ghana and President John Dramani Mahama.

According to the NPP Brong-Ahafo Minority Caucus in Parliament, if the President and the Bank of Ghana, including all the security organisations – National Security, Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) and Police Service had not conducted themselves negligently, the people would have been protected from the hands of such quack organisations.

Speaking at a press conference at Techiman, the Spokesperson for the members of Parliament (MPs), Kwaku Agyeman Manu, noted, “it is the responsibility of the state to ensure that crooks are not allowed to operate at the scale and level at which they operate in the financial sector.”

Mr. Kwaku Agyeman Manu continued that the President's pronouncement that neither he nor his wife knows DKM is neither here nor there. He stated that the President, knowing them in person does not exonerate the Commander-In- Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces from blame, asking, “does the President want to tell us that with all the security apparatus under his command, he did not receive any intelligence report of the activity of these microfinance operators?”

The MP for Dormaa Central, on behalf of his colleagues, also asked whether the President did not understand the negative outcome of such activities, and how negatively it would impact on the financial sector of the economy.

He said the people of the Brong-Ahafo had been deceived and feel cheated in a country over which President Mahama presides. “He can deny his direct involvement, but we shall continue to blame him for his incompetency, because a good president does not sit as head of the security agencies for this to happen.”

According to the Minority MPs, after their December 28, 2015 encounter with the press in Sunyani, new developments have emerged in the form of allegations, some of which, they said, include; the President's wife's involvement, and how she managed to cajole unsuspecting youth and other citizens to invest in these scandalous organizations.

The MPs described as unfortunate chiefs and queens in Brong-Ahafo who have been demonstrating and organising press conferences to defend the First Lady and her husband, the President.

“The people you exercise overlord responsibility [over] have got their fingers burnt; they have been defrauded and have lost huge amounts of monies in the process; some have died and they continue dying; school fees have become a huge problem hanging on the necks of parents who have become victims; some cannot service their loans they have procured from banks,” the MPs indicated.

According to the MPs, they will continue to give the respect due Nananom, since disrespect for Nananom by eminent people like them will not augur well for their traditional communities, however, the blatant disregard and violation of the provisions of the Constitution, which does not permit the traditional authorities to actively participate in politics, cannot continue the way it is going.

The MPs described the attempt by the BoG and the security agencies to bring the culprits to a forum to address the victims as a hoax and a well-engineered propaganda event just created to allow the President and his supporters label the victims as politically motivated people.

The MPs reiterated that they were still demanding from the government, as a matter of urgency, an explanation of the conduct of the Bank of Ghana and its allied institutions, as well as all other security agencies to the victims and people of Brong-Ahafo.

They also demand an explanation to the people from the government as to what chances the victims have in retrieving their monies from the quack financial institutions and how soon this could be done.

They assured the victims that they will never be alone in their fight for justice, as they strive to retrieve their monies from the fraudulent institutions, stressing that the government has its hands in all these matters, and as their representatives will continue to put the necessary pressure at their disposal to ensure that the government does not run away from the mess.

The MPs said they were working to summon the Minister for Finance to Parliament to explain the negligent conduct of the Bank of Ghana, and whether the government is actually planning to pay back the depositors' monies to them, and how quickly that can happen, adding that if that fails, the Minority Caucus in Parliament would have no option than to take the Bank of Ghana and government to court for negligence, and to retrieve the monies for the victims.

From Michael Boateng, Techiman