Pay our locked-up funds or we’ll vote against you – Blackshield customers to govt

Some aggrieved customers of Gold Coast Fund Management (now Blackshield) have threatened to vote against the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the December polls if the government fails to pay their locked-up funds.

Numbering over 800,000, the angry customers say they have been exempted from all bailout packages instituted by the government to cushion customers of the various financial institutions that have been collapsed by their regulators.

Addressing a press conference in Kumasi on Sunday, November 1, 2020, the Public Relations Officer of the Coalition of Aggrieved Gold Coast (Blackshield) Customers, Charles Nyame, said over 268 of the group’s members have died in connection with their locked-up funds.

He noted that the majority of those who died were pensioners who could not foot their medical bills.

Mr. Nyame described as "unfair", the fact that the government has left the victims "to wallow in abject poverty and deprivation", while their funds are locked up in a venture that was regulated under government machinery – the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

He urged the government to expedite action in settling all issues surrounding the defunct Gold Coast Fund Management company in court "on a purely humanitarian basis".

The group also demanded that its members be added to the bailout package.

Mr. Nyame threatened, on behalf of the customers, to vote against the Akufo-Addo government in the December 7 polls if their locked-up funds are not paid.