When given the chance, former Chief Justice Sophia Akuffo says she will follow through on her decision to support senior bondholders who months ago objected to being included in the government’s Domestic Debt Exchange Program (DDEP).
Speaking on Starr Chat with Bola Ray on November 9, Madam Akuffo stated that her relative, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, would not have been shocked to see her participate in the demonstration against his administration.
“I don’t think he was surprised, he knows me..” when asked if the president was unhappy with her action, she replied in the negative.
She said that after witnessing the suffering of her fellow pensioners on television, she was inspired to join the protest, calling the DDEP program evocative of the military’s fiat era.
“You contracted me, that in return for buying your bonds these are what I am expecting. Now you want to change my expectations for whatever reasons, you don’t do by decree.
“It was more like the days where you wake you up in the morning and by decree something has happened in Ghana.
“All of a sudden no more 50 cedi notes or all of a sudden from Saturday there is a new currency but the new currency is not in circulation yet. But Saturday, Monday what you have is no longer money, decree. What kind of life is that?” Madam Sophia Akuffo asked.
She continued: “It took me to those days where by a fiat you will want to tell me unless I sign up something, I don’t want any new arrangement with you. If I had to do the same again I would, I don’t care because what I did, did I do anything wrong?”
“I was upset that retired persons will reach such a sorry past, that pensioners have to do that. Because somebody is insisting on breaching the law as far as I am concerned,” Madam Akuffo stated.
She claimed to have seen the evolution of the elderly picketing on television and to have known a few of them.
