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| Miss Ghana 2013 -1st runner-up, Margaret Kuma-Mintah (right) |
Why would a young woman work hard, jump hurdles and go through many weeks of self-funding to emerge as first runner-up of a beauty pageant she willingly signed up for—if not for finding out that she had been duped?
Following the explosive conversations with three former Miss Ghana Beaty Queens, Miss Ghana 2010-Stephanie Karikari, Miss Ghana 2015-Antoinette Delali Kemavor and Miss Ghana 2013-Giuseppina Nana Akua Baafi who all spoke about the different layers of exploitation, verbal and sometimes physical abuses and the sort of sexual baits they were used for by Inna Patty– Margaret Kuma-Mintah has also spoken up and her story is equally shocking.
For Margaret Kuma-Mintah, when she realized the true exploitative nature of Miss Ghana spearheaded by Inna Patty, which though was a great disappointment to her, she resigned to the shock of many Ghanaians.
In an about 30 minutes’ conversation with GhanaCelebrities.Com, Margaret mentioned that she was turned into a perpetual beggar together with the other girls—whose sole jobs as winners of Miss Ghana was to move from one office to another, soliciting for funds for Inna Patty and her Exclusive Events Ghana.
According to Margaret, they were not even given a driver. So she had to always drive the Queen- Giuseppina Baafi and second runner-up around, Selorm Amudzi—therefore doubling as a driver, which made her always exhausted.
It wasn’t just the driving that pushed her to resign; she said she soon realized the Miss Ghana she saw from afar, marinated in valuable projects and experiences was a complete opposite of the somewhat fraud she got into.
Margaret recounted that, even before the grand finale, all the 20 contestants were asked to raised funds to make a donation to Korle-Bu’s maternity ward. She raised 6,000 GHS out of the 10,000 GHS target was given, her other friend (contestant) raised the whole 10,000 GHS and even though she cannot remember how much the others raised, they also raised something.
Yet, Inna Patty failed to make the said donation—claiming the money raised was not enough and therefore she was going to deposit the money into a Miss Ghana bank account. Inna Patty is said to have told the girls that after the final event, they would make the said donation—and Margaret says, this never happened and she does not know what Inna did with the monies they raised.
For Margaret, she was alarmed when the second runner-up and herself were asked to go out there to beg for money from corporate Ghana to be used to buy their own crowns—something Miss Ghana organisers should have easily provided themselves. Of course, they were told there was no money for that and they had to bring in money for that.
Even as these young vulnerable women jumped from one office to another, soliciting for funds for Inna Patty and her Miss Ghana organisation, they were not given any fuel money. They were asked to use their own monies for these rounds.
Speaking about the prize monies, Margaret said though they were told of the prize money, eventually when they won, they were told they wouldn’t give them the entire cash. But it would be divided into pieces, to be used to pay them each month for coming to work at the Miss Ghana office.
Her prize of 2000 GHS, was to be paid to her in monthly instalments of 160 GHS a month. And since she resigned two weeks after her win, she didn’t even get a penny.
On the issue of Miss Ghana’s unfair contract which GhanaCelebrities.Com has published several pages, Margaret confirmed what the others have already said—saying, Inna Patty read the contract to them in a room and asked them to sign the contract instantly. And that, if you didn’t want to sign there and then, you would have to leave the competition. So there was no room for a second opinion or legal representation.
Why would young women be dragged into a room, be given an unfair contract that almost robs them of every right, including freedom of speech (a right to voice their concerns to third-party persons or the media) and be denied access to legal representation? But that’s what Miss Ghana does—in order to be able to exploit these young girls, under the sphere of a signed contract.
What’s more troubling is the fact that three young vulnerable women were camped in a Miss Ghana house in Accra, without any Security–despite Inna Patty initially promising one.
Margaret says, in the face of all the garbage and exploitation Miss Ghana was serving them, they were required to defer their studies for a year to come and work in the Miss Ghana office. And working in the Miss Ghana Office just entailed, visiting people, mostly men in their offices to seek for money at all cost.
She couldn’t forfeit her education, even temporary for such an exploitative scheme that placed her in the hands of men, who would ask for dinners anytime they went looking for huge sums of money from them. And so, she resigned.
Margaret and the other girls were asked by Inna Patty and her company, as usual, to also raise funds to attend Miss World and this was to be done alongside raising the monthly 10,000 GHS.
She says it was all about money, money, money for Inna Patty—there was nothing valuable in there for her and therefore she quit to continue her dreams, to acquire a degree in Law.
Margaret called for a Parliamentary Inquiry or Ministerial investigation into the hovering Miss Ghana scandal.
Already, other Beauty Queens have told GhanaCelebrities.Com that, Inna and her company seem to be running a glorified escort agency masquerading around as a beauty pageant. And the experiences of these young women were not unique; they all suffered the same revolting and inappropriate treatments in the hands of a woman who fits the description of a shrewd “Machiavelli”.
For the first time, we’ve heard Antoinette Delali Kemavor narrate how Inna Patty told her expressly to be “SWEET” and “ACCEPTABLE” of whatever a man they were seeking sponsorship from would demand of her—and that was immediately before she took her to have a late night dinner at this man’s residence in Nungua, Accra.
At the dinner, when Antoinette Delali Kemavor seemed to be getting on well with the man, Inna Patty was said to be happy. And when Delali Kemavor stated that she was tired and therefore wanted to know when they would leave, she said; the man told her, he thought “she was sleeping over.”
From what GhanaCelebrities.Com has been told, Inna and her company seem to be running a glorified escort agency masquerading around as a beauty pageant. And the experiences of these young women were not unique; they all suffered the same revolting and inappropriate treatments in the hands of a woman who fits the description of a shrewd “Machiavelli”.
So far, Inna Patty herself has not responded to these allegations which have become a national conversation. She also failed to show up for an OKAY FM interview yesterday—after it was widely advertised, even on Miss Ghana’s Facebook page that she would be speaking on the platform in relation to the erected allegations.
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