General News of Friday, 28 September 2018
Source: www.ghanaweb.com
2018-09-28
The scene at the Menzgold office at Dzorwulu in Accra Friday morning
Angry customers of gold dealership company, Menzgold, have threatened to beat up any journalist who shows up at any of the company’s offices to film activities there today as scores troop in to redeem their dividends.
This follows a release by the company signaling the resumption of payment of dividends to investors following a temporal halt after the Securities and Exchanges Commission of Ghana ordered the company to stop taking deposits.
Two reporters from Ghana’s largest online portal, Ghanaweb.com, but for the timely intervention of some police officers present, would have been beaten to pulp on Friday morning when they arrived at the Dzorwulu Branch of Menzgold to report on the situation there.
Beatrice Sowah, a Multimedia Journalist and Richard Vanderpuije, a camera operator were in the process of gathering information for the filing of a report on happenings at the Menzgold office when the angry customers pounced on them. According to the customers, they do not want any media house coming in to film activities or processes at the company’s premise. They say the move is to prevent ‘misinformation’ of the exact situation as regards the payment of their dividends.
About four police officers hurriedly surrounded the two GhanaWeb journalists in a bid to protect them when scores of supporters decided to attack them after one shouted, “we won’t allow…we won’t allow”. The police officers had to ward off the attacking customers even as they moved the journalists away from the company’s premises. One of the police officers who came to the rescue of the journalists said, “you’re not safe here. Please leave immediately. We can’t protect you for long.”
Scores of Menzgold customers have this morning moved in drones to several of the company’s branches across the country to either demand dividend payments or their entire investment capital.
Menzgold workers manhandle TV3 and Joy News reporters
On September 12 this year, three Menzgold workers reportedly manhandled two journalists as they tried to get reactions to the directive to the gold dealership company to cease gold trading activities by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
A reporter with Multimedia Group’s Joy News, Karen Dodoo and a pregnant journalist with Media Generale’s TV3, Nana Akua, were confronted by the workers in suit and tie.
The journalists were standing across the street by the Menzgold office in East Legon in Accra getting ready to file reports for their 12-noon bulletins.
They had gone there hours after SEC had announced a directive which had triggered panic withdrawals at the gold dealership company.
Menzgold resumes dividend payments
Gold dealership company, Menzgold, announced at a press conference on Thursday, September 27, 2018 that the company would resume the payment of dividend to clients. The company however said investments on or after September 12 will not be covered.
Corporate manager of Menzgold Ghana, Nana Yaw Ofei said a payment schedule will also be released to make the payment of dividends happen without chaos and overcrowding. The exclusion of the September 12 investments, the company suggests, is because that was the day the Security and Exchanges Commission (SEC) asked the company to shut down over an alleged breach of licencing and other regulations.