Lawyer Appeals To Gov’t To Compensate Aggrieved Menzgold Customers

A private Legal Practitioner and also President of Distinguished Scholars of Africa, Dr. Nana Oppong has called on government to compensate customers of Menzgold Ghana Limited whose funds are locked up by paying part of the monies they invested to them.

The gold dealership firm has not been able to pay customers their dividends since August 2018 when they were stopped from trading in Gold by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on the grounds of regulatory infractions.

From that time, affected customers who have invested huge sums of money with Menzgold have been going on a number of demonstrations in an attempt to appeal to government to step in and retrieve their monies for them. There has also been calls from people for government to use taxpayer’s money to settle the affected people just as they did some time ago for DKM customers.

Government has however stated on countless occasions that there is nothing they can do as far as using state money to pay customers is concerned. Government argue that they warned the customers but they never listened and went ahead to do business with the gold dealership firm.

Dr. Nana Oppong speaking to Class FM earlier this morning stated that government should take a look at using state funds to pay some percentage of the money customers invested in Menzgold to them by way of compensating them and helping them to get back on their feet.

The legal practitioner opines that even though the government is not obliged to do so, it can make that intervention on humanitarian grounds by supplementing Menzgold’s payment efforts, especially in the event that the company is unable to fully pay all its clients principal investments to them after all possible avenues have been exhausted.

“We’re a poor country, we’re not that rich, so we need money for hospitals, schools. We’re borrowing and, so, there is a very limited thing we can do, but we can do something. We have to sit down and see: Can we have 10 or 20 per cent or 40 per cent? How much can we bring to help these people? Then moving forward, how do we make sure that when a new company comes into town and says: ‘I promise you this and that’, we approve and monitor and make sure the people don’t become victims again”, he said.

He continued “Sometimes we do things not because we are legally obliged but because it is the right thing to do. As a nation, on humanitarian grounds, to show compassion, to show solidarity and to minimize injuries and the pain and suffering of people, we should think about that.”

The latest on the Menzgold saga is that a delegation from government has been sent to Dubai where the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Menzgold Nana Appiah Mensah (NAM1) is said to have been arrested. The delegation has been tasked to negotiate with Dubai authorities for NAM1 to be handed to them and brought to Ghana where he is wanted by authorities for fraud.