Sunyani, May 23, GNA - Shareholders of Baduman Rural Bank Limited have appealed to the Bank of Ghana to ensure that a meeting was convened to elect a board within 40 days or they would advise themselves.

In a statement to the head of the Supervision Department of the central bank signed by Mr Francis Nyame and 10 others, the shareholders called for an extra-ordinary general meeting to elect a board of directors to take over from the Interim Management Committee (IMC) "else we shall advise ourselves if nothing is heard after 40 days". It said the elected board of directors of the bank was dissolved by one Mr Agyeman Ofori, an official of the Bank of Ghana, who served as a relieving manager last year, for reasons which were not made known to shareholders.

They alleged that Mr Agyeman replaced the board with the IMC whose members were his friends and most of whom were not shareholders. The statement said the shareholders were expecting an official from the central bank at the annual general meeting to explain why the board was dissolved and also to supervise an election of a substantive board but no official attended the meeting.

It said this implied that the Bank of Ghana wanted to impose the IMC on the bank for another term.

"In a limited liability company like ours, it is always the shareholders who have the right to elect members from within."