The Coalition of Aggrieved Customers of Menzgold (CACM) have challenged assertions by Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia that defunct Menzgold was an illegal investment entity and therefore taxpayers’ money cannot be used to pay them their deposits following the company’s collapse.
The coalition wondered, among others, how an entity described by the Vice President as 419 (a scam) could have the all clear to sponsor First Lady Rebecca Akufo-Addo’s foundation, and how the company’s CEO Nana Appiah Mensah had access to the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
Dr Bawumia recently said on Techiman-based Link FM that customers of Menzgold were not entitled to any payment from Government because they had deliberately invested in an illegal entity against the warning of the Bank of Ghana.
“Menzgold is not a licensed financial institution… We are talking about licensed financial institutions. But if you set up your 419 institution and the Bank of Ghana warned repeatedly that people should not do business with Menzgold because they were not a licensed financial institution… So you can’t use taxpayers’ money to pay locked-up funds of an institution that is not a licensed financial institution,” he noted.
But CACM, in a statement posted on their official Facebook account put some five questions to the Vice President seeking to refute his claims of the illegitimacy of Menzgold.
“Dear Dr Bawumia, You refer menzgold as “419 Institution”? very well, can you please answer the below questions for Ghanaians to know?
1. How on earth did the “419 institution” sponsored the First Lady foundation? Where are the 419 money?
2. How did the CEO of the “419 institution” got access to the President?
3. Formal President Mahama said he is going investigate the matter as a matter of urgency so the dying victims can retrieve their funds, Dr Bawumia, why is nam1 walking free under your supervision and still using the funds of victims to open new businesses and also used 1.5mil dollars to sign new artist after the state charging him of money laundering?
4. Where are the assets, monies and pounds of GOLD seized by EOCO?
5. Please ask the NPP where they got the funds that sponsored your cape coast congress towards the 2016 elections… is that too “419 money”??” The statement read in part.
The customers then lamented that the Vice President’s manner of speaking to them was unacceptable.
“A whole Vice President is not expected to speak to its citizens in pain in such a manner!” They stated.
The aggrieved customers are therefore calling on Government to let justice be served by paying their locked up funds.
The aggrieved customers have been agitating for their locked up funds from Government since the collapse of the company in 2018. Government’s response has been to point out to them that the company was not duly sanctioned by the proper regulatory body, the Securitues and Exchange Commission (SEC) to engage in the business it was engaged in.
