Lawyers for Nana Appiah Mensah , alias NAM 1, led by Alexander Owusu Junior, has urged the Accra Circuit 10 to discharge the embattled businessman if the prosecution continues asking for adjournments.
He argues that by the architecture of the country’s criminal justice system, prosecutions are supposed to be conducted within a reasonable time.
This case, however, he says, has traveled far beyond reasonable times.
The beleaguered Chief Executive of a defunct gold dealership firm, MenzGold, stands accused of defrauding at least 16,000 of his customers of GH¢1.68 billion.
He was arrested in July 2019, slapped with 61 counts of criminal offenses including defrauding by false pretenses, abetment to defraud by false pretenses, carrying deposit business without a licence, abetment of sale of minerals without a licence, sale of minerals without a licence, abetment to the unlawful deposit-taking, unlawful deposit-taking and money laundering.
NAM1 is on a GHS 1 billion bail while the case is being heard, and it’s been three years since the charges were initiated against him.
In Court on Monday, February 21, 2022, Prosecutor DSP Sylvester Asare prayed for adjournment, attracting the concerns of NAM1’s lawyers.
The case has been adjourned to April 4, 2022.