"419" Scam Victim Vows to Get Money Back

FOLLOWING THE late December CHRONICLE report on the 200 people who were allegedly duped in the 1994 World Cup by Best Way Travel and Tours, a victim in the Eastern Region, has sworn to fight tooth and nail to ensure that they are paid back.

The victim, Mr. Edward Ato Menash, who is now a police detective at Begoro Police Station, swore when speaking to this reporter in an exclusive interview last week at Begoro. He appealed to the government to ensure that justice is given by making the company pay back their money.

As to how government should seek justice on their behalf, he pointed out that the late director of Best Way Travel and Tours, Mr. Kwesi Eyeson, used their money in putting up Applause Hotel in Shama. So government should sell the hotel and use the proceeds to pay them back.

Mr. Ato Mensah narrated how they were duped as already reported by the paper on December 13. According to him, after they had paid the $4,500 fares per head, they were told the next time that the company was not able to secure visas for them (200 people).

When they turned up in their numbers the following day to collect their fares back, they were told again that the then director of the travel agency had vanished which gave them the suspicion that they had been defrauded.

Accordingly, they (the victims) lodged a complaint at the Registrar General's Department, after information reached them that Eyeson was using their money in putting up Applause Hotel.

Unfortunately, the government agency has not made any move to ensure that we succeed in bringing the company to book.

"We know it was our money Eyeson used in putting up the hotel so government should as a matter of ensuring justice confiscate the properties of the agency, sell and use the proceeds to pacify us," Ato Mensah said.