General News of Monday, 14 January 2019
Source: citinewsroom.com
2019-01-14
Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa
NDC MP for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, is pushing for a bi-partisan committee to probe the Menzgold saga, which has seen customers demand locked up funds.
The MP said parliament needed to show strength following the debacle surrounding the minerals trading company.
“I sincerely pray for the day our parliament will shed off its rather sad reputation of being weak and tied to the apron strings of the Executive,” Mr. Ablakwa said in a post on Facebook.
The MP said his fellow legislators ” who ought to act as the true representatives of the people cannot afford to fold [thier] arms and merely join the greed and naivety chorus.”
“I sincerely pray that some colleagues across the aisle will have the courage to join those of us on this side who believe we can look into this matter in the supreme interest of Ghana irrespective of partisan considerations and really depart from the farcical precedents of recent bi-partisan probes where partisanship trounced truth and conscience.”
Mr. Ablakwa said he would expect such a committee to try to understand of the Menzgold business model “to really ascertain if it does fit the classical definition of a Ponzi scheme.”
Of interest to him is also “what led to the inability of the State to carry out its basic non-negotiable public duty of protecting citizens.”
He also suggested an assessment of the impact of Menzgold’s collapse on the economy and mitigation options.
“May this 7th Parliament stand up to be counted and may history not say of us that we were the representatives who failed to represent the people and failed to secure the people’s future when the opportunity beckoned,” the MP concluded.
In the latest development in the Menzgold saga, Menzgold CEO Nana Appiah Mensah has reportedly been arrested in Dubai by Interpol.
But his arrest is not in relation to the scandal in Ghana, sources have said. He is said to be involved in a gold deal with an Arabian that has gone bad.
Prior to his arrest, an Accra Circuit Court issued a warrant for his arrest after charges of defrauding by false pretence contrary to section 131 of Act 29/60.
Warrants were also issued for two other individuals, Benedicta Appiah and Rose Tetteh.
Find below Ablakwa’s full post
Elsewhere, their Parliaments would have long commenced a full-blown bi-partisan enquiry into this Menzgold debacle.
In the very least, the Terms Of Reference would have included:
An understanding of the Menzgold business model to really ascertain if it does fit the classical definition of a Ponzi scheme;
If indeed it was a Ponzi scheme, how was Menzgold allowed to operate all these years?
What led to the inability of the State to carry out it’s basic non-negotiable public duty of protecting citizens by the seeming abdication or impotence or complicity of regulators, tax authorities and the national security apparatus?
An assessment of the impact of Menzgold’s collapse on the economy and mitigation options;
The true circumstances of how Nana Appiah Mensah left Ghana and if indeed he is on the run;
Exploring possibilities for the compensation of the millions of Menzgold victims especially after a thorough credible independent tracking of Nana Appiah Mensah’s assets and bank accounts across the world;
An examination of the existing legal and enforcement climate in Ghana which makes it possible for such to happen and recommendations to forestall future occurrence seeing that apparently many of such schemes are going on waiting to explode in our faces in a matter of time.
I sincerely pray for the day our parliament will shed off it’s rather sad reputation of being weak and tied to the apron strings of the Executive.
I sincerely pray that some colleagues across the aisle will have the courage to join those of us on this side who believe we can look into this matter in the supreme interest of Ghana irrespective of partisan considerations and really depart from the farcical precedents of recent bi-partisan probes where partisanship trounced truth and conscience.
Even though I am in no way connected to Menzgold, neither am I one of their victims, contrary to infantile fabrications in circulation; it is my considered view that those of us in elected office and who ought to act as the true representatives of the people cannot afford to fold our arms and merely join the greed and naivety chorus.
Leaders and especially the people’s representatives cannot abandon nor betray their constituents in such a crude manner as being suggested by some. That would not be the kind of representative democracy Rt. Hon. Justice D.F. Annan, Rt. Hon. Peter Ala Adjetey, Hon. J.H. Mensah and others laid down their lives for.
May this 7th Parliament stand up to be counted and may history not say of us that we were the representatives who failed to represent the people and failed to secure the people’s future when the opportunity beckoned.
