Open Letter to Cal Bank

Dear Management of Cal Bank,

The #CalBank Shooting (http://www.spyghana.com/police-sporadic-shooting-cal-bank-true-story/) is as much your problem as #GhanaPolice and the victims.

Trying to act like an ostrich will not make it go away neither will it make it not your problem. After the incident, you have issued out one statement (http://www.myjoyonline.com/news/2014/March-10th/cal-bank-shooting-management-assures-customers-of-safety.php) stating you have been informed of the incident, the injured were given medical care, the incident has been reported to the police (out of curiosity, who reported? you or one of the victims?), you are cooperating with the police investigation and the safety of your customers has always been of paramount concern to you so customers should continue to do their business as usual with you. Seriously? If you are concerned about the safety of your customers, either you show it or issue them bullet proof vests and helmets (http://yesiyesighana.wordpress.com/2014/03/10/cal-bank-to-issue-bulletproof-vests-to-customers/) before they enter your bank.

When there is a crisis, you manage it (yes, this is very much a crisis for Cal Bank) that is why there's something called crisis management. Never heard of a wing (no pun intended) of it called "ostrich crisis management", which really is what you are practicing. Your statement could have started off as you stating how appalled you are by the incident that occurred in your bank (who was right, who was wrong, it was after all appalling), offering your sympathies to the victims of the incident and their families, assuring your customers of their safety in your branches and assuring them you are cooperating with Ghana police in their investigation. Don't urge them to do business with you. Makes you come across as insensitive. Lives could have been lost. That would have sounded like something written by persons with feelings not something written by an automated machine only concerned about profit making. A statement like that does not come across as you judging the situation nor refusing to assist with the police investigation. I know your tag line is "bank on our service" and not "bank on our human relations", but I must have mistook the service you talk about to include human relations. My bad. You are a bank and your service really is collecting people's money and making profits off of it. How they live and die really is no concern of yours. Leave that to human rights activists.

Another thing Management of Cal Bank, if you are not aware, well, officials at your branch where the incident happened, Derby Avenue, are. Your security men at that branch sold (who knows? maybe they still do) parking spaces to shoppers in Accra. So, you get to Accra to shop, can't find parking, you park in front of the bank, pay something to security over there then you go do your shopping. I am guessing proceeds were shared with the policeman at the centre of all this. Why then would a security man, send a policeman after a man because of parking space? Why would the policeman oblige? Something must have driven him. Unless Ghana police can come out and prove that he was under the influence of drugs/alcohol or was controlled by juju or their officers now double as caretakers of parking lots, I'd like to speculate and say the love of money drove him to what he did. Did I already say officials at the branch of your bank knew this? They knew and did nothing until this incident happened. Imagine they had put a stop to it. Now, imagine someone comes out and says your security has collected money from them for parking over there before. Don't rule that out just yet. It just might happen.

And oh, you saw the communication that was coming from Ghana police and you, having some of your staff witnessing what happened and watching everything on your own CCTV said nothing?

Remember, "there may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but let there never be a time when we fail to protest".

Sincerely,

Efua Dentaa.