The Coalition for the Protection of Individual Liberties and Constitutional Rights has accused the Board Chairman of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust, Kwame Preprah, of orchestrating the move for the sale of TTB, third largest local bank in Ghana, to Ecobank Transnational Incorporated in pursuit of his selfish interest.
The group insists that the deal, if allowed to go through, will go into history as one of the worst divestiture deals in Ghana, claiming that it smacks of corruption, apart from the fact that it does not make any business sense.
The group, in press release signed by William Atamudzi, Chairman, and Elorm Desewu, Media Liaison, claimed it had reliable information about the possible rationalisation of operations in an attempt to reduce operational expenses by ETI when the sale is successful.
�COPCOR is very much concerned about the hundreds of workers of The Trust Bank that will be laid off after the consolidation deal, adding to the number of unemployed citizens in the country. It will be very sad to see these workers sacked because of the parochial interest of some individuals on the SSNIT board who simply want to fill their pockets and bellies after this ill-intentioned sale,� the statement alleged.
According to the group, even though some Board Members of SSNIT are opposed to the sale, because it is not in the interest nation, the Board Chairman, Mr Peprah, and the Director General, Frank Odoom, are desperately pushing for the deal to satisfy their �personal gains.�
The statement called on all well-meaning Ghanaians to join the crusade �to prevent Kwame Peprah from embarking on this self-seeking journey to make himself rich whiles putting the pension funds of the Ghanaian worker at risk.�
COPCOR again wondered why the Trade Union Congress had not yet commented on the issue since it affects workers, adding �it baffles us why they have chosen to standby unconcerned whiles some greedy individuals are feverishly warming up to engage in a transaction that will put our pension funds at risk. The TUC must wake up now and talk on behalf of the workers of this country in order to protect our pension funds.�
In the view of the group, TTB is one of the few local hens that lay the golden eggs, insisting that �an efficient bank such as this cannot be sold to a foreign institution�.
The group reiterated its appeal to President Mills to intervene to save the nation from being robbed for the personal gains of some individuals, stressing: �Mr President, we are once again at your doorstep, requesting that you make a public pronouncement on this issue to prevent the greedy ones from feeding fat in areas where they have not laboured and have sown no seeds�.
It reminded President Mills about his utterances and actions during the sale of the nation�s shares in Ghana Telecom and tasked him to apply the same action to the TTB situation.
�He should remember the placard that he was holding in August 2008, when the Committee for Joint Action went on a demonstration against the sale of Ghana Telecom to Vodafone, which the placard read �Ghanaians are capable of managing their own fairs�.
�We once more call on his Excellency, President J. E. A. Mills to intervene now, bearing in mind the need to be careful of some of his advisors on this particular matter because some of them are operating in the background, pushing Kwame Peprah and Frank Odoom (the Director General) to pursue this cause for their collective gains.� the statement stressed.
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