'SUSU' SCAM inn T'DI ...Operatiors bolt with GH¢80,000 (LEAD STORY)

Story: Moses Dotsey Aklorbortu, Takaroadi

OPERATORS of a loan and ‘susu’ company in Takoradi are reported to have bolted with GH¢80,000 being contributions made by more than 2,000 customers.
The company, Great Financial Services, was said to have promised its customers that they could secure various sums of money as loans if they continuously saved with it for a year.
Officials of the company are said to be nowhere to be found and the customers — mainly market women, students and artisans, as well as their apprentices — find themselves in limbo as to how to retrieve their investments, with the accruing interest.
The police are currently looking for one Mr Justice Kirasi, a Kumasi-based businessman, who is said to be the owner of the business.
Meanwhile, the regional agent of the company, Nana Badu Asare, has been arrested by the police.
After Nana Asare’s arrest, the contributors besieged the premises of the Takoradi Central Police Station to demand a refund of their monies.
But the agent, who is said to have been depositing the daily contributions into an account that can only be accessed by the owner of the business, could not help the anxious customers.
To ascertain the amount collected from the contributors, the police are currently taking their particulars and the amount they contributed as recorded in their passbooks.
One of the victims, Madam Martha Abban, a trader, said she decided to join the susu scheme because the company promised her good interest rate and access to loans.
“But as I talk to you now, I cannot access the GH¢70 I contributed with its accrued interest nor the loan, only to be told that the whole thing is becoming a scam and now I don’t know what to do,” she said.
Another trader, Madam Helena Mensah, said, “I am short of words, I don’t know what to do, I have contributed GH¢80 and now I cannot get my money, as well as the loan they promised.”
The Western Regional Police Public Relations Officer, Olivia Ewurabena Adiku, who confirmed the story, said at the moment about GH¢35,000 had been accrued from various sums of monies recorded in the passbooks of the almost 700 customers who had so far reported to the Takoradi Central Police Station.
She urged members of the public who had information about Justice Kirasi, the said owner of the company, to report to the nearest police station. Nana Asare has been granted bail while investigations continue.