Whereas many Ghanaians and government alike are sympathizing
with customers of Menzgold especially the unsuspecting ones most of whom are on
the brink of losing their life-time investments and are calling on the relevant
State actors to do the needful, the biggest opposition party in Ghana, the NDC,
would rather see this as yet another opportunity to make political capital. In
a very characteristic fashion, the NDC, led by their National Communications
Officer, Sammy Gyamfi, would want Ghanaians to blame President Akufo-Addo and
the NPP government for the predicaments of Menzgold and all its customers for
some unfathomable reasons.
Sammy Gyamfi also accuses His Excellency President Akufo-Addo
and the NPP government of complicity in this Menzgold saga and attempting to
cover up their involvement through some state-sponsored actions. Ordinarily, I
would ignore Sammy Gyamfi, because, it is clear that, his relevance in the NDC
is measured based on the amount of vitriol and acidic propaganda he is able to
spew at the person of President Akufo-Addo and the NPP, and so, he’s only doing
his job. I am however unable to resist the temptation to respond to him and set
the records straight particularly on his desperate attempt to politicise this
otherwise sensitive issue.
SAMMY GYAMFI’S
INCONSISTENCY
The same Sammy Gyamfi, who, recently, was all over the place,
slamming the NPP government for seeking to collapse NAM1’s business (Menzgold),
is today, making a gargantuan u’turn accusing government and President
Akufo-Addo in particular for promoting the business of Menzgold. When you elect
such a walking contradiction as your National Communications Officer, you
certainly should not expect anything less. I am sure you’ve watched and
listened to him on Asempa fm and elsewhere blowing both hot and cold on the
same subject of Menzgold.
THE POLITICS OF PICTURE
AND ENDORSEMENT
Sammy Gyamfi and the NDC are claiming that because NAM1 has a
picture with President Akufo-Addo, it is prima facie evidence of the
president’s complicity and open endorsement of NAM1’s business operations. How
pathetic!! So, public figures and officials can no longer take pictures with other
persons, and if they did, it meant they endorsed the activities of those other
persons? Is this what the NDC has been reduced to? Where would such sheer
desperation and kindergarten politics take us to?
If, for being seen in a photo with NAM1, it meant President
Akufo-Addo endorsed and promoted the works of NAM1, then former President
Mahama also endorsed homosexuality, because, he is seen in many pictures and at
close intervals with Andrew Solomon, who is widely described as the founder and
president of the Association of Gays and Lesbians in the World. In fact, in the
case of President Mahama and Andrew Solomon, their relationship goes beyond the
many pictures they took, and as the former President himself once put it in
disagreeing with his Information and Media Relations Minister, Mahama Ayariga,
Andrew Solomon was his close friends with whom they did many things together,
and indeed, when he was launching his maiden book, “My First Coup d’état” in
the US, he, [President Mahama] made Andrew Solomon the Chairman for that
auspicious occasion.
Also, going by Sammy Gyamfi and his NDC’s infantile logic,
His Eminence the National Chief Imam as well as His Royal Highness the
Asantehene, just like President Akufo-Addo, have also endorsed NAM1’s business,
because he [NAM1] has photos with them. Equally, the Multimedia Group,
Media-General, GBC, EIB Network and indeed all the media stations that run
adverts for Menzgold have all endorsed NAM1’s modus operandi and are therefore
his accomplices in this unfolding saga. That’s Sammy Gyamfi and the NDC for
you.
THE NAKED LIES
Contrary to the NDC’s claim that Menzgold has over 2.8m
customers with some GHc200m investment with the company, records have it that
Menzgold actually has less than 10,000 customers with less than GHc100m worth
of investment. It is also a palpable falsehood the NDC’s claim that NAM1 was a
financier to the NPP’s 2016 campaign and indeed Sammy Gyamfi and his propaganda
cohorts have till date not been able to adduce a scintilla of evidence to substantiate
their claims.
MENZGOLD OPERATIONS AND
THE BLAME GAME
The NDC says we should blame the NPP government for allowing
Menzgold to operate, and failing to take the necessary steps to protect the
customers. Let us subject this claim to FACTS CHECK. First of all, it is a fact
that Menzgold was licensed in 2013 when it started operation by which time the
NDC was in government. Apart from the issuance of a red alert, the NDC
government did absolutely nothing to clampdown on the operations of Menzgold
even when it became clear that they were operating beyond the remit of the
license they were granted by the Minerals Commission.
So, Menzgold had a safe haven to operate for 4 years during
the Mahama administration. That’s the record of the NDC in stopping the
Menzgold scam and protecting its customers. With such records, you would
understand why almost all the major Ponzi Schemes witnessed in Ghana happened
during the NDC reign including the infamous US Tilapia, DKM, R5, Bamask and
Pyram among several others.
Contrasting this with the NPP’s commitment in relation to
dealing with the Menzgold saga, the difference is overwhelmingly clear. To
start with, immediately the NPP came into office, the Bank of Ghana, in July
2017, cautioned the general public and warned Menzbank to stop taking further
deposits. In a smart move, the company changed its name to Menzgold and set up
a subsidiary by name “Brew Marketing Limited” where clients were directed to go
and purchase gold and deposit same with Menzgold for monthly dividend of 7 to
10%. Minerals Commission, after its investigation, wrote to Menzgold in
September 2017, stating that Brew Marketing Limited had not been registered as
a licence buying agent.
Also, after a joint operation with the Bank of Ghana and the
Minerals Commission in June 2018, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
went hard on Menzgold describing their operation as one of capital market
dealings, which it did not have licence thus contravening the Securities
Industries Act, 2016 (Act 929) as well as the Specialized Deposit-Taking Act,
2016 (Act 930). Accordingly, Menzgold was ordered to stop operation in relation
to taking new contracts. For the records, Menzgold was not ordered to stop
paying dividends to existing customers, but was only asked to stick to what its
license provided while maintaining its existing contractual obligations.
It is worthy of note that all these statutory bodies (EOCO,
SEC, PMMC, Minerals Commission and the Bank of Ghana) and laws existed during
the NDC administration when Menzgold operated for good 4 years. There was no
conscious effort by officialdom to check the operations of the company and so,
they were allowed to operate in a non-regulatory regime duping more and more
unsuspecting customers with their “rob Peter and pay Paul” Ponzi Scheme.
WHY EOCO DIDN’T ORDER
THE FREEZING OF NAM1’S ACCOUNTS AND SEIZURE OF HIS PROPERTIES
Sammy Gyamfi makes the point that EOCO should be faulted for
failing to order the immediate freezing and seizure of NAM1’s accounts and properties
when the EOCO Act, 2010 (Act 804) clothes it with such powers. To him and his
NDC, so long as the law clothes a statutory body with certain powers, the body
can exercise such powers in any manner it deems fit without recourse to due
process. Sammy Gyamfi pretends to be unaware that the exercise of discretionary
power is subject to the elaborate provisions of Article 23 and 296 of the 1992
Constitution which provisions were enunciated by the Supreme Court in a number
of decided cases including Awuni v WAEC and Abu
Ramadan v EC and Okudzeto Ablakwa(2) v AG(2).
Yet, Sammy Gyamfi, whom we are told is a lawyer, does not
know this? God save the legal profession. The point should be made that EOCO
has now been able to freeze NAM1’s accounts because it has now been established
beyond equivocation that Menzgold was engaged in some fishy deals culminating
in loss of depositors’ funds and the accompanying public protestations. Indeed,
an Accra High Court recently dismissed Menzgold’s suit challenging SEC’s
regulatory jurisdictions over its operations.
WHY DID EOCO GRANT BAIL
TO NAM1 AND FAIL TO CONFISCATE HIS PASSPORT
EOCO’s invitation and subsequent arrest of NAM1 was as early
as August 2018 following a complaint filed by the Bank of Ghana after the
banter it had with NAM1, but at which time no prima facie case was established
against him. He was therefore entitled to bail even without sureties. It is
therefore not surprising that he was granted a self-recognisance bail. There
was also no clarity in respect of which laws Menzgold had breached and which
statutory body had exclusive jurisdiction over its operations.
Equally, Menzgold was at the time challenging the actions of
SEC and the Bank of Ghana in court. In view of this, you would agree that there
was no basis for EOCO to have descended heavily on NAM1 to the extent of
seizing his passports and refusing to grant him bail. I bet you, if EOCO had
acted in such capricious manner, the same Sammy Gyamfi and the NDC would have
accused EOCO and by extension the Akufo-Addo government of abusing its powers
against innocent businessmen.
GOVERNMENT AIDED NAM1’S
ESCAPE
Having established that NAM1 was deserving of bail based on
the law and the circumstances of this case, which bail he was rightly granted
by EOCO, why should government be blamed for the conduct of NAM1 in breaching
his bail conditions and absconding? In any case, Sammy Gyamfi’s legendary
incompetence would not let him know that the ports of Ghana are not the only
means through which one can leave the Ghanaian territory. Incompetence would
not let Sammy Gyamfi and his NDC know that people can leave this country
through any of our many borders (approved or non-approved) without any trace.
CONCLUSION
It is abundantly clear from the foregoing that if we were to
politicise this infamous Menzgold scam as the NDC is inviting us to do, then
certainly their government [the erstwhile Mahama administration] is to blame,
for, first of all, creating this mess and failing to apply the law to protect innocent
customers. It is also abundantly clear that, just like the banking sector mess
they left behind, this Akufo-Addo government has shown more than enough
testicular commitment to dealing with the crisis at all costs including
political cost so long as it is in the interest of the nation. In any case, we
didn’t vote for a government to go taking popular decisions but decisions that
would inure greatly to the benefit of the nation at large even if they appear
unpopular today.
As for Sammi Gyamfi, the least said about him the better. It
is obvious he would never change so long as you have some desperate politicians
in the NDC urging him on. The young man, perhaps, doesn’t know he is being used
to do some dirty works of these so called party kingpins while destroying his credibility,
if he still has any. Well, let it be told Sammy Gyamfi and his NDC that he
cannot fool all the people all the time. Ghanaians are not unintelligent.
Assalamu alaik
Iddi Muhayu-Deen
#ForGodAndCountry
