Former Chief Justice Sophia Akuffo has warned to take the government to court if the pension fund is included in the domestic debt exchange programme (DDEP).
Speaking to reporters after joining a group of pensioners protesting outside the Treasury Department on Friday 10 February, the former chief justice called the government’s decision inhumane, complete malice and absolute disrespect.
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“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,” Madam Sophia Akuffo said.
She also criticized the government for messing up the economy and trying to get their pension funds into a restructuring of the domestic debt.
“We have had our ups and downs. A lot of us were from generations where we were encouraged to save for tomorrow and all that. We have been through times where all your savings become nonsense because of some government policies, then over the years, bit by bit, people have become more confident in the economy and investments.
“Quite a number of people here today, when they retired last two years, they have put everything into government bonds. It is a contract and now all of a sudden, you virtually want to force them to agree with you that the repayment of the yield of their investment should be as you dictate it. Why?”
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Ms. Sophia Akuffo called on the government to be transparent and accountable to the people of Ghana about what led to the current economic crisis and what all the loans were used for.
“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.”
