Nana Appiah Mensah
The trial of embattled founder and Chief Executive Officer of Menzgold Ghana Limited, Nana Appiah Mensah, popularly known as NAM1, is set to be conducted online due to the accused person’s ill health.
NAM1 was expected to continue his examination in chief yesterday, but the court indicated that it had received a doctor’s report on the accused who needed to be excused from attending court.
Watkins Adama, a Principal State Attorney at the Office of the Attorney General, confirmed sighting the excuse duty but indicated he did not have a copy.
The court, presided over by Justice Sedinam Awo Kwadam, therefore, decided to take NAM1’s evidence via a video feed, particularly with no objections from his lawyers.
The court also noticed that NAM1 and his lawyers have still not filed witness statements for the accused and his potential witness as ordered by the court.
That notwithstanding, the court said a link would be provided for the trial to be conducted online as NAM1 recovers from his ailment. The case was adjourned to April 1 for continuation.
NAM1 and two of his companies – Menzgold Ghana Limited and Brew Marketing Consult Ghana Limited are facing 39 counts of defrauding by false pretence, inducing members of the public to invest, money laundering, among others, for a total of GH¢340,835,650.
At the last sitting, his lawyers hinted the possibility of calling about 20 witnesses in defence of the allegations levelled against him, including defrauding by false pretences.
The court had previously ordered NAM1 to file witness statements for all the witnesses he would be calling, to enable the court to undertake case management.
That order reinforced the previous one given in 2024 after the court had made the finding that the prosecution had established a prima facie to warrant a defence from the accused persons.
However, his lawyer, Paa Joy Boateng, told the court that they were unable to file the witness statements, noting it was impossible to complete the witness statements of the witnesses who are about 20.
“Also, there are over 100 documents which we were reviewing and some of which are with some state institutions yet to be received to help in the defence of the A1 (NAM1) in particular,” he further indicated.
NAM1 has so far explained the processes leading to Menzgold being licensed by the Minerals Commission.
According to him, two main reasons led to a shift of the Precious Minerals Marketing Company (PMMC) as the then licensing authority to the Minerals Commission.
He said one of the reasons was the fact that Menzgold, an organisation that had commenced relatively small, became very successful and big with few other branches in Ghana largely due to effective management, vision, resourcefulness and more importantly, regulatory compliance.
NAM1 said the second reason was a result of Gold Exporters Association of Ghana suing PMMC after it introduced a regulation that sought to infringe on their commercial and economic rights.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak