Arrest NAM1 immediately, say Menzgold customers

A lavish artiste signing ceremony held in Accra over the weekend has sparked fresh calls for the police to arrest the chief executive of the defunct gold dealership Menzgold, Nana Appiah Mensah, popularly known as NAM1.

The Coalition of Aggrieved Customers of Menzgold (CACM) is demanding to know how the man who has failed to pay its members since their investments got locked up as the company collapsed in 2018 can still be throwing money around.

Not only do they want him arrested immediately, they want law-enforcement officials to confiscate all his properties.

Speaking at a press conference on Monday, the secretary of CACM, Samuel Odartey, said the former customers are incensed by the development.

“We are very much appalled by the bravado and the open disregard for the laws of the land, seeing as NAM1, a man who has been slapped with 61 criminal charges including money laundering, is still signing financial contracts and being escorted by macho men,” Odartey said.

“If, indeed our laws are working, which we believe they are, then we call on His Excellency the President to order the Office of National Security to cause the arrest of NAM1 immediately without delay,” he said.

Customers are surprised that the artiste signing ceremony was organised with grandeur, pomp and pageantry and in the full glare of the Ghanaian state authorities.

Shattered lives

Odartey claims no fewer than 55 of the CACM members have lost their lives due to the hardship they and their families have had to endure since their monies were locked up.

“It is not surprising that NAM1, the father of Menzgold, Brew Marketing Consult, Payboy, Ivex Minerals, Metallica Refinery and 5G Gold, has got enough money to spare and sign on artistes and go on a free-for-all spending, while victims of Menzgold customers continue to die, suffer stroke and heart attacks … as well as have their lives shattered just as a result of investing in Menzgold.”

The customers want their funds paid to them without delay, and demand that “Menzgold customers’ plight should be treated as a national security issue to avert more deaths among the customers”.

Odartey described claims by NAM1 that the company has paid some GHC9.6 million to customers whose monies were locked up in his firm as false.

As the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) has frozen NAM1’s assets through a court order, “Where did NAM1 get the money to pay GHC9.6 million and how was the payment done?” he asked.