A planned demonstration against President Mahama on Saturday by aggrieved customers of micro-finance companies closed down for operating a ponzi scheme has been cancelled.
In what appears to be the biggest scandal to have rocked micro-finance operations in Ghana, the customers lost millions of cedis as a result of dubious operations by the companies.
President Mahama in his State of the Nation Address in February this year blamed negligence on the part of Bank of Ghana for their loss and ordered the central bank to pay the customers their actual savings, but that directive is yet to be obeyed.
However, Sunyani-based companies like DKM Microfinance Company, God is Love Fun Club DKM and several others were closed down by Bank of Ghana
The customers who believe the government has shown a lack of commitment to retrieve their monies from the micro-finance companies decided to protest today as President Mahama leads the National Democratic Party to launch the party’s manifesto in Sunyani.
The scheduled demonstration had to be called off following a court injunction secured by the police because it coincides with the manifesto launch.
A statement signed by the Spokesperson of the Concerned Customers of the companies, Maxwell Mahama said although they disagree with the police, they will respect the court order.
Below is the full statement
CONCERNED CUSTOMERS OF DMK, JASTA MOTORS, PERFECT EDGE AND TWELVE OTHER FUN CLUBS.
RE: AN ORDER OF INJUNCTION (MOTION ON NOTICE)
We wish to bring to the attention of all affected customers, the media and the general public that,we received an Order of Injunction/motion on notice from the High Court of Justice, Sunyani on Thursday, September 15, 2016 at around 4:00pm in which the Inspector-General of police (IGP) is the applicant restraining us from embarking on our lawful demonstration today, Saturday, September 17, 2016.
Paragraph 4,5,6 of the AFFIDAVIT IN SUPPORT,
(4) “that the date coincides with the date the NDC is launching its Manifesto in SUNYANI
(5) that the police have already prepared the grounds to provide security for the NDC Manifesto launching.
(7) that there is the likelihood for the breach of peace to occur if the said demonstration is embarked upon on Saturday 17/09/16.
We totally disagree with the Ghana Police Service and further add that the Ghana Police Service minds are tainted with malice and prejudices. The police are very unfair to we the affected customers and they have repeated their biasedness in the second time to we the demonstrators.
Meanwhile, our lawyers have advised us to be law abiding citizens and respect the Restraining Order of the Court due to the limited time .
“We have also listened to Johnson Asiedu Nketiah,a Son from the Brong Ahafo Region and the General Secretary of the NDC, making some unfounded allegations that the affected customers are motivated by a political party to cause disaffection for the ruling party and even added that Government cannot use taxpayers money to settle affected customers.” We will give him a befitting answer at the appropriate time.
We, therefore, cancel our demonstration today, Saturday, September 17, 2016.
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