Debt exchange is wicked, disrespectful & unlawful

Debt exchange is wicked, disrespectful & unlawful - S.Akufo.

Sophia Akuffo, a former chief justice, is concerned about what would happen to pensioners who are protesting the inclusion of their money in the present debt restructuring.

The lawyer and retired judge, thinks it's unjust that her colleagues would have to go through this with the finance minister Ken Ofori-Atta's Domestic Debt Exchange Program.

She asserts that she cannot remain indifferent as long as the issue involves the contractual rights of pensioners.

“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. Their pain is my pain because I have retired sisters, I have retired friends, and so on and so forth,” she said on Friday.

The former Chief Justice was spotted picketing the Finance Ministry along with aggrieved pensioners demanding the exemption of retirees’ investments from the programme.

She hoisted a placard with the inscription ‘We depend on our bond yields to pay our rent, medical bills, electricity bills and water bills.’

In an interview with JoyNews, she said that despite receiving generous retirement benefits as a result of her job, she would still join forces with others in a similar situation.

The previous Chief Justice called the DDE programme wicked and unlawful.

“I find it wicked, I find it disrespectful, I find it unlawful, I find it totally wrong, period! Because you don’t solve your problems by sacrificing your aged. That is the last thing you should do,” she told JoyNews.

The protesting pensioners are presently confined inside a meeting with the Ministry representatives to strategize the next steps.

Monday, February 6, saw the start of a picket by members of the Pensioner Bondholders Forum outside the Finance Ministry in a bid to have their assets completely exempted from the Domestic Debt Exchange scheme.

The forum participants have appeared at the Ministry for the sixth day in a row.

A 15% coupon rate has been suggested by the government. Although they were singing patriotic Ghanaian songs, the group of roughly 50 pensioners opposed the idea.

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