The Leadership of the Aggrieved Customers of Gold Coast Fund Management (ACGCFM) has accused the Greater Accra Regional Police Command of obstructing their right to protest.
In a statement, the ACGCFM said they have been trying to picket at the premises of the Finance Ministry to demand the payment of their locked-up monies for the past five years, but the police have repeatedly denied them permission.
The ACGCFM said they first wrote to the police on July 12, 2023, notifying them of their planned 36-hour nonstop picketing at the Finance Ministry from 10 AM July 24, 2023 to 10 PM July 25, 2023.
Below is the Aggrieved Customers’ full statement.
The Leadership of the Aggrieved Customers of Gold Coast Fund Management (ACGCFM) would like to draw the attention of the Inspector General of Police, the Interior Minister, and the general public to the deliberate attempt by the Greater Accra Regional Police Command to position itself as a hurdle in intimidating and preventing the poor Ghanaian investors who have had their monies locked up for the past five (5) years to a Government policy of Financial Sector Clean-up Exercise from exercising their constitutional rights of public protest in spite of meeting the requirements of the Public Order Act.
We would like to inform the General Public that, the Ghana Police Service has in recent times schemed out ‘some excuses’ to prevent the ACGCFM from picketing at the premises of the Finance Ministry to demand the payment of our locked-up monies for the past five (5) years, payment of which is conditioned on securing of Liquidation Order by the Registrar General.
We wrote to the Police on July 12, 2023, notifying them of our planned 36-hour nonstop picketing at the premises of the Finance Ministry from 10 AM July 24, 2023 to 10 PM July 25, 2023.
The Greater Accra Regional Police Commander invited the Leadership of the ACGCFM into a meeting dated July 19, 2023 and expressed the inability of his office to assign Police Officers to protect lives and properties on the said date (July 24, 2023) for the picketing and requested we rescheduled our picketing to a different date.
Although we knew the Police has no jurisdiction power to control a date of a protest but a court of competent jurisdiction, yet, because of creating a good rapport with the Police, the Leadership of the group agreed to the request of the Commander and further gave the Commander opportunity to suggest a date which does not coincide with any activity on the Police calendar. After about twenty (20) minutes of caucus meeting among the Accra Regional Police Commander, the 2IC, and the Staff Officer, the Staff Officer said that August 24, 2023 is a convenient date for them to police our 36-hour nonstop picketing. Subsequently, the ACGCFM submitted a new notification to the Police and rescheduled the picketing at the Finance Ministry to commence on August 24, 2023 as suggested by the Police.
The ACGCFM is therefore taken aback by the sudden U-turn of the Accra Regional Police Command to request us to reschedule our picketing again to another date after September, citing the Homowo Festive Celebration as a reason.
The question is, does the Homowo Celebration span through to the end of September?
We hereby request the intervention of the IGP to call the Greater Accra Regional Police Commander, C.O.P. Dr. Sayibu Pabi Gariba to immediate order, to stop using his Office to prevent the ACGCFM from exercising our constitutional rights to picket at the Ministry of Finance.
We would also like to state on record, that, the Leadership of the Aggrieved Customers of Gold Coast Fund Management should not be held responsible should some of the group members advise themselves because of the Police position.
In conclusion, we would like to assure the General Public that the ACGCFM is a law-abiding Group and will continue to resort to lawful means to drum home our grievances. Nonetheless, the Group would not succumb to any unlawful security imposition.