The Securities and Exchange Commission has once again warned Nigerians
against patronising the Ponzi scheme, MMM stating that its activities
were not regulated by the commission or the Central Bank of Nigeria.
This is coming after the Nigeria Police Force said it does not have any
directive from the government to arrest operators or participants of the
MMM.
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.
The MMM scheme, which was suspended by its operators in December last
year, commenced operations on Friday and 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, Punch reports.
Abdusalam told one of our correspondents during a telephone interview
that the commission would continue to enlighten capital market
investors.
