Menzgold saga: Govt to diplomatically engage its UAE counterparts to have NAM1 released

Government is going to engage its counterparts in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on more than one grounds to have the arrested Chief Executive Officer of Menzgold Ghana Limited brought home to face prosecution, a deputy minister has stated.
Already, plans are afoot, Deputy Minister of Justice Joseph Kpemka noted, to have a delegation fly out of Ghana within the next 24 hours to engage Emirati officials.

This follows correspondence between Dubai police and the Ghana Police Service on Sunday, January 13 that wanted Nana Appiah Mensah has been in the custody of the Gulf city police since December 7, 2018.
He had been arrested on suspicion of a gold deal gone bad.

The Service confirmed in a statement on Monday that even Ghanaian officials have visited Mr Mensah in custody.
Speaking on TV3’s News 360 on Monday, Mr Kpemka, who is also a lawmaker representing Tempane Constituency, said the situation will be handled on a legal, security and diplomatic ground.
“What we are seeking to do, therefore, is that we will engage [UAE] at the diplomatic level, we will engage them at the security level and we will explain to them also the legal position of our country so that we will persuade them to have him released to us.”

According to him, Ghana has no bilateral treaty with UAE on extradition and so NAM1, as the Menzgold boss is popularly known, cannot be extradited to Ghana.
But he hopes the three-phase approach will pay off.
He revealed that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is keenly following events and he is on top of issues as regards the agitations by aggrieved Menzgold customers and efforts by International Police to have Mr Mensah arrested.

Mr Kpemka, who has been named as likely to be part of government’s delegation to Dubai, says the president would want to see the last of the Menzgold matter.