Some members of the Coalition of Aggrieved Customers of the defunct 53 Fund Management Companies were arrested for leading a protest at the property of the Finance Ministry.
The picketing was done in hope of registering their displeasure over the exclusion of clients of Blackshield Capital Limited from the first phase of government’s proposed bailout package for customers of the defunct fund management companies.
The Public Relations Officer of the Accra Regional Police Command, DSP Efia Tenge, in an interview rationalized that the leaders were arrested for staging an unlawful protest.
“We heard a group of aggrieved people have besieged the premises of the Ministry of Finance and we saw that they had blocked the entrance of the Ministry preventing access; and therefore it behooves on the police to come and ensure that they are dispersed and that is what we have done.
“We keep on saying that if you want to embark on any form of protest or any form of demonstration, go through what the law requires for all of us under the Public Order Act 1994, Act 491, so if you do not go through this basic requirement, then it means that the police would have no other option than to come and disperse the crowd and that is what the police have done.”
According to the group, the action was necessitated by the fact that some affected members and customers will not be enlisted as part of the first phase of government’s bailout package.
The Securities and Exchange Commission has indicated however that Blackshield clients formerly Goldcoast Fund Management and the others, will only be captured in the second phase after the liquidation orders are secured.
This information has riled up clients of the defunct fund management further as they have in their own right threatened protest should the decision by the Commission remain unchanged.
Aggrieved customers of defunct fund manages urges SEC to reconsider its decision
Earlier, the Coalition of Aggrieved Customers had petitioned the Commission to review the decision to exclude clients of Blackshield Capital Limited from the government’s bailout package.
Spokesperson for the Coalition, Charles Nyame, in an interaction with the press on Monday, August 31, 2020, labelled the exclusion of Blackshield’s clients as a ploy to divert the public’s attention from the poor handling of the financial sector clean-up.
“We consider the reasons given by the SEC as misleading and deceptive. The government also issued a bailout to other customers of companies that are also in court to contest their revocation. It is therefore questionable how the government and SEC decided to apply the rules differently. The actions by the government and SEC are mischievous and dishonest, especially when the government is aware that the court is on legal vacation. We hereby call on the government to rethink and include all Blackshield customers in the bailout package since advancing the bailout package does not amount to any interference in the court process”.
