Carpenter besieges bank with belongings over investments

Mensah Kwami Azaglo, 42, a carpenter, has besieged the premises of Unity Rural Bank Limited in Ho with his belongings following the Bank’s inability to pay him his deposits.

He told the Ghana News Agency GNA) the Bank owed him GH¢46, 249.90 since 2013 and all attempts to retrieve the money were unsuccessful.

Mr Azaglo said anytime he went to the Bank to collect the money the Manager told him there was no money compelling him to send the issue to court in May 2019.

He said in September, 2019 the court granted the Bank’s application of motion on notice to stay in execution of the debt by monthly installment, payment of GH¢4,000.00 per month from December 2019 on wards.

Mr Azaglo alleged that the Bank told the court that to show good faith, it would pay him GH¢5,000.00 by the end of November 2019, which the court granted but that had also not be fulfilled.

He said the Bank’s inability to comply with the court directive and pay him his money put him in a serious financial constraint to the extent that his landlord had ejected him from his house because of his inability to pay rent.

Mr Azaglo said the situation was also taking a serious toll on his children’s education as he was unable to pay their school fees, with some of his co-workers also threatening police action against him “thinking that I have spent the money before deceiving them that it is at the bank.”

He said but for the copy of the judgement, he would have been in police custody and therefore threatened to continue to stay at the premises of the Bank until he received his deposit.

A document showed to the media by Mr Azaglo confirmed the court’s grant of application of motion on notice by the lawyer of the Bank for the Bank to pay the debt by monthly instalment, payment of Gh¢4,000.00 from December, 2019 onwards and also payment of Gh¢5,000.00 by end of November, 2019 as a way of showing good faith.

Staff of the Bank declined comments on the situation with the Bank Manager also unavailable for comments.

Some customers of Bank, formerly, Adaklu Rural Bank, in 2017 appealed to the Bank of Ghana to rescue the Bank from “total” liquidation.

They said the Bank was struggling to stay afloat and needed the intervention of Bank of Ghana to survive.

The customers who made the appeal through the Ghana News Agency (GNA) said the Bank had been struggling to pay salaries and pensions since 2015, with some clients spending days at the banking hall for salaries.

Mr Prosper Deh, a Public Servant said attempts to withdraw part of his savings since August 2016 had not been successful.

Other customers said their salaries were sometimes paid in bits with heavy police presence in the banking hall and asked the Bank of Ghana to take over operations of the Bank.

Mr Charles Gatsey, acting General Manager of the Bank, at the time, said it was true that the Bank was facing liquidation challenges but it was putting measures in place to stabilize the situation.

“We are retrieving loans given out and now able to secure salaries and pensions which was a problem months ago. The police are helping us to retrieve more loans,” he said.

Mr Gatsey said it was not necessary for the Bank of Ghana to come in because, “this is a small Bank,” and gave assurance that the situation would be stabilized in six months.