Seven aggrieved customers of gold dealership, Menzgold, who were arrested in Kumasi for alleged breaches of the law today appeared at the Asokore Mampong District Court.
They have been identified as Eric kwakye, Vivian Agyei, James Abubakar and Jafta Agyemang.
The rest are; Arnold Tamakloe, Adams Osman and Samuel Agyarko.
One of the suspects, Jafta Agyemang, failed to appear before the court presided over by H/W Portia Molly Anafo Salia (Mrs).
The accused persons pleaded not guilty to the charge of breaching the public order act.
They were granted bail in the sum of GHC5,000 each with one surety and would re-appear before the court on Tuesday January 22, 2019.
Counsel for the accused persons, Kwame Owusu Sekyere, in an interview with court reporters believes his clients are innocent.
“The government is accusing them of breaching the Public Order Act but my clients say it is not so but rather they were only interested in retrieving their monies from Menzgold” he insisted.
Meanwhile some customers who spoke to journalists say they are unfazed by the development and would continue to mount pressure on stakeholders to have their locked up investments paid.
One of the customers who spoke to ghanagong.com explained that they did not set out to break any laws but were focused on doing whatever would bring pressure to bare and enable them retrieve their locked up investments. He also explained that the affected clients are not asking government to pay them with taxpayers’ money but rather intervene to force Menzgold to pay them their monies.
“We don’t have any issue with the Police. They have treated us well and taken us to court. The law has spoken and we are supposed to return to the court. We will comply with the court’s directive. We don’t have any next line of action. We are not trouble makers but we are law abiding citizens. Some of our colleagues are dead and many may not survive this. we are not asking government to pay us with taxpayers’ money. We want government to cause NAM1 to pay us our monies back. NAM1 has said before that they are in a good position to pay customers the monies. As it stands, we don’t know where NAM1 is but the government can easily find him and bring him to order” he said.
Menzgold, a gold dealership, has been in the news in recent months following disagreements with the Bank of Ghana (BoG) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding its operations.
The company, forced to shut down its collectibles and other businesses related to its gold vault market, has since run into problems which have caused their customers to demand their principals invested with the company. Their efforts have however been unsuccessful so far.
On Tuesday, there were fresh demonstrations in the Ashanti region, as some aggrieved customers of Menzgold hit the streets to register their displeasure.
Meanwhile, the demonstrating customers have pleaded with the government to intervene to get Menzgold to refund their investments.
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