Adelani Adepegba and Ifeanyi Onuba
The Nigeria Police Force has said it does not have any directive from the government to arrest operators or participants of the MMM, a Ponzi scheme.
It also explained that it would not go after operators or participants in the scheme because no one had complained about being swindled by the programme.
The police stated this on Saturday just as the Securities and Exchange Commission warned Nigerians against patronising the scheme.
There were reports that the MMM scheme, which was suspended by its operators in December last year, had commenced operations on Friday.
The scheme directed its members to provide ‘help and get help,’ urging them to make use of the cryptocurrency, bitcoin, for their transactions.
The Force Public Relations Officer, Donald Awunah, a Commissioner of Police, told Sunday PUNCH on Saturday that the police had no plans to go after the operators of the scheme, stressing that there were no complaints against them.
“We are not going after the operators because there is no complaint from anyone that he was swindled by them. No one has complained against them, so we have no reason to go after them. Also, there is no directive from the government to arrest the operators or shut them down,” he explained.
The Corporate Communications Manager, SEC, Naif Abdulsalam, when asked if the commission had made any formal complaint to the security agencies on the activities of the promoters of the scheme, said he would not be able to comment on that.
“I won’t be able to speak on that now,” he said and declined further comment.
He, however, warned Nigerians against patronising the Ponzi scheme, stating that its activities were not regulated by the commission or the Central Bank of Nigeria.
Abdusalam told one of our correspondents during a telephone interview that the commission would continue to enlighten capital market investors.
– PUNCH
