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Opinions of Tuesday, 15 January 2019

Columnist: Daily Guide

All that glitters not gold

CEO of Menzgold Ghana limited, Nana Appiah Mensah CEO of Menzgold Ghana limited, Nana Appiah Mensah

For those who were enthralled by the dazzling neon lights and the gold plated façade of Menzgold, they should have learnt after their bitter experience with the ponzi affair that all that glitters is really not gold.

So much water has passed under the bridge since the Menzgold affair made landfall or better still media-fall for want of a better expression.

There is no dispute about the dearth of information about the subject especially from the time of Nana Akwasi Mensah, NAM1's so-called invitation or alternatively put, arrest by the Economic And Organised Crime Office (EOCO).

The occasional appearance of integrity-lacking stories about Menzgold only fueled the curiosity of intellectuals and security experts about propriety or otherwise of those managing the investigation.

The jumping of bail by the suspect aggravates the worry of many Ghanaians. It is as though the offence for which he is being investigated is not serious enough.

We would not be asking for too much when we ask that this aspect of the picture be probed to establish the circumstances under which the man absconded as it were.

Ghanaians have never been so hungry for news about the matters arising from a ponzi scheme in which so many Ghanaians have fallen victim. It is one subject which some politicians jumped onto seeing it as a potential quarry to feast on. Unfortunately, with the relevant agencies not forthcoming as they should with germane details, the subject continues to be shrouded in an avoidable opaqueness.

With the existence of a Special Prosecutor, we expect to witness a productive coordination between it and EOCO – the subject under review offering an apt case in point.

Information about the international transactions involving gold and related subjects, by the now exposed sleaze company, is still out of the reach of Ghanaians safe perhaps the investigators.

We want to know the integrity of the claim of gold export and the details thereof. This would enable us to make informed thoughts about the sleaze company at this time.

A future recurrence of another ponzi-underlying gold investment can only be obviated only if the subject is thoroughly investigated and the findings released for public consumption and the necessary action taken. This cannot be attained when the cloud of opaqueness remains annoyingly the feature of the subject. Perhaps the withholding of the information inures to the interest of those who facilitated the absconding of NAM1.

Were the necessary measures taken under the circumstances to prevent a bail jump at all?

Was the man at the centre of the sleaze in possession of his passport or not? If he was, who made that possible? Was his jumping bail facilitated by a deliberate engineering of somebody who allowed him to keep his travel document; the property of the state?

NAM1 came, surveyed and launched a mouth-watering ponzi-scheme: the outcome of which is the sorry state of its victims.