Ghanatodayonline.com News, Politics, Health, Education & More
Former Chief Justice (CJ) Sophia Akuffo has urged Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta to start over and develop a plan that will be acceptable to the government and bondholders.
According to the former CJ, the agreement made when the bonds were purchased is still in effect until this is done.
Ms. Akuffo gave an interview to the media on Friday, February 10, 2023, when she joined the Pensioner Bondholders on their fifth day of picketing to emphasize their requests that their assets be spared from the government’s Domestic Debt Exchange (DDE) scheme.
“I’m seeing it purely from a legal point of view, their contractual rights being threatened. Then I have to say something. I have to join them in solidarity” Sophia Akuffo stated.
“Their pain is my pain because I have retired sisters, I have retired friends, and so on and so forth.”
The former CJ encouraged the bondholders to kick against the 15 percent coupon rate proposal by government.
“The Minister of Finance should better go back to the drawing board and come up with a better proposal otherwise nobody is going to agree to it.
“I am encouraging people not to agree with it. A contract is a contract, and it must be respected and if you want to renegotiate, come to the table with humility and come with ‘yesable’ proposal,” she stated.
She also questioned how the country reached its current economic mess and demanded that government be accountable to the citizenry by being transparent.
“Why are we in the mess? Nobody has fully explained to us, yes we took debt, what was it used for? And where is the accountability? Exactly what was it used for? You are not telling us about how you are going to be able to make things better but just that ‘help me and I help you’, no, you help yourself first, let me see you doing something serious because we have seen these sorts of things too many times.
“I am over 70 years now, I am no longer government employed, my mouth has been ungagged, and I am talking, and I am saying that we have failed, and it is important that the elderly should be respected. I find this wicked, I find it disrespectful, I find it unlawful, I find it totally wrong,” Sophia Akuffo said.
The Pensioner Bondholders Forum’s picketing at the Ministry of Finance is now on its fifth day, which is this Friday, February 10, 2023.
In order to make their requests for their assets to be spared from the government’s DDE program clear, members of the Pensioner Bondholders Forum continued to picket today.
The government has suggested a coupon rate of 15%, but the organization has indicated it would not accept any investment reductions.
The group claims that because its members’ livelihoods rely on the revenues, it would not take haircuts on investments.
Some group members have said they need the money from their assets to pay for their prescription drugs and other necessities, thus they want the government to completely exempt their investments.
Source: Ghanatodayonline.com
